What’s big, blue and fluffy? The newest addition to Feilding Blue Light – meet Constable Bluey!
The local Blue Light Committee, headed by Youth Aid Officer Constable Allan McLean, had previously borrowed the popular national Blue Light mascot Harry the Hedgehog for events but decided they wanted their own one to enhance their engagement with children and youth locally.
“The initiative behind Constable Bluey was to create another positive way to engage with young kids and for it to be a memorable moment,” says Allan.
“Having Bluey join our crew is a long-term investment for our Blue Light Committee - seeing how popular Harry was, we thought, let’s go for it and make our own.”
Allan and the committee created a concept and talked with other organisations who have mascots to get a better idea of what they needed to do.
The team even reached out to the production team of The Masked Singer NZ reality TV show and spoke with them about their costume designs.
“We wanted a quality product that was going to go the distance and a costume that kids would love and engage with," says Allan.
"We appreciated the professional guidance as none of us are costume experts!”
They passed on to the show’s costume designer what they envisioned the mascot should look like, then examples were created with the criteria of being blue, fluffy and huggable.
The Blue Light Committee then settled on a design and have never looked back.
“Blue Light couldn’t do all the awesome work without community support and donations and Professional Fleet Services in Feilding were keen to get onboard and help us bring Bluey to life,” says Allan.
“Bluey has only been serving for a few months but the reception he gets when we have brought him to Blue Light discos, school patrols and visits is epic – kids rush up to him and want to hug him and play with him.
“Parents also love Bluey and seeing the kids have a positive connection with Police.
“Having Bluey as our mascot creates more opportunities to connect with youth – we might even look at publishing a Constable Bluey children’s book with underlining Police messages. The possibilities are endless.”