Happy Birthday!
Wenlock and Mandeville celebrate their first birthday!
17 May 2011
The London 2012 Olympic and Parlaympic mascots Wenlock and Mandeville took time out their busy schedule today to celebrate their first birthday.
The mascots enjoyed a special birthday party at John Lewis Oxford Street attended London 2012 table tennis hopeful Hannah Hicks and children from Kilburn Park Primary School, who are a member of the Get Set network.
The dynamic duo have had a busy year on their journeys across the UK, meeting young people and inspiring them to choose sport as they head towards the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.
The mascots have attended more than 200 events across the UK in the past year, many at schools in the Get Set network, taking part in schools sports days and special Olympic and Paralympic related assemblies. Wenlock and Mandeville have also been popular features at London 2012 sponsor events such as Lloyds TSB National Sport Week, the BT Paralympic World Cup and through Deloitte’s school programme. They also celebrated the Royal Wedding by featuring as a Beefeater and Queen’s Guard in a special mascot hunt around London.
Wenlock and Mandeville have been giving a helping hand to teachers and pupils in schools across the UK featuring on a range of new resources available to schools through Get Set. Many teachers have used the resources as the basis of projects and activities which demonstrate a commitment to the Olympic and Paralympic Values to support their application to join the Get Set network. Over 2,500 schools from every nation and region in the UK entered the recent art and design competition, Get Set to Make Your Mascot.
Fans of Wenlock and Mandeville are also engaging with digital versions of the mascots with new innovative and interactive computer Games. A mascot customiser that allows you to create your own versions of Wenlock and Mandeville with different clothes and sports equipment has proved particularly popular.
Customise the mascots today!
Created from the last drops of steel left over from the construction of the final support girder for the Olympic Stadium, their names reflect the UK’s rich Olympic and Paralympic histories. Wenlock’s name is inspired by the Shropshire village of Much Wenlock where the ‘Wenlock Games’ was one of the inspirations that led the founder of the modern Olympic movement Baron Pierre de Coubertin to create the Olympic Games. Mandeville’s name is inspired by Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire. In the 1940s, Dr.Ludwig Guttmann came to Stoke Mandeville Hospital to set up a new spinal unit to help former soldiers suffering from spinal cord injuries. Looking for ways to inspire those in his care, he encouraged them to take up sport, leading to the formation of the Stoke Mandeville Games, widely recognised as a forerunner of the modern Paralympic movement.
