Photos courtesy of Michael Cruz

Fresno State may soon be home of the World’s Largest Recyclable College Mascot. Eight students from Dr. William Rice’s Marketing 188 class have taken on the task of building a bulldog out of metal and promoting it.

According to senior Kerri Thomas, there are two rules with the assignment: break a record and bring attention to Fresno.

The idea of a recyclable mascot came from a lot of brainstorming.

Thomas and her classmates used the two rules and came up with a green idea. “We understand that people want to recycle now and we felt that this was the best idea,” Thomas said.

Once the idea was in place the students needed to build the mascot. The students used recyclable metal and welded the pieces together. “No one knew how to weld when we first started this project,” Michael Cruz, another Marketing 188 student, said.

Cruz, Thomas and the other members learned how to weld from local artist Chris M. Sorensen. Sorensen, 83, also gave the students the material needed to build the project and lent them his studio space.

The 500-pound mascot comprised of square tubing, chicken wire and used concrete blades stands about 12 feet tall, 16 feet long and 8 feet wide. The metal frame will be painted the same colors as the Fresno State bulldog. The project has taken the students a month to do.

“This is like a full time job,” Cruz said.

Not only have they given their time to the project, but also their own money. “All eight of us have put around $500 into this project,” Cruz said. They have also received donations from local business in the process including Sorensen.

The main purpose behind the mascot is to fill it with crushed cans and donate the proceeds to the Fresno State Scholarship Fund and to Multiple Sclerosis.

Thomas talked the other members into donating to MS because of a family member who has the disease. “I definitely wanted to put money in MS, which is a non-profit organization,” Thomas said.

Thomas, Cruz and others have already started collecting cans to fill the bulldog with. The group went to three local schools and had can-donating contests. The winning class was given a pizza party. The team also has donation barrels at the Alumni House for the public to bring cans.

Thomas, Cruz and their group hope to have the same help with donations at this Saturday’s double header at Beiden Field featuring Fresno State and Hawaii.

The mascot will be unveiled at a tailgate party in the Red Lot parking lot before the games.

After Saturday’s games the mascot will be placed in front of the business building on campus for the remainder of the semester.

Cruz is hoping that after this semester an organization will be willing to take over responsibility for the mascot because all group members are graduating. The mascot will need to be repainted in a year. The group will also need someone to collect the cans from the mascot. For now the main concern is the tailgate and having a world record.

The group sent in an application with hopes that the metal bulldog will be dubbed the World’s Largest Recyclable College Mascot and is awaiting reply from the Guinness World Records.

“We are trying to set a record, not break one,” Cruz said.