I hope you will like this story as much as I like telling it. This past Sunday the Racine Theater Guild hosted a special 75th Birthday Party for Packy- (short for Pachyderm) – the elephant mascot for the Racine Children’s Theater, which has been in continuous existence for three quarters of a century bringing live theater to the children of Racine. It’s a magnificent legacy and something about which Racine can be tremendously proud.
Anyway, Sunday was a sunny and hot day- with a high temperature right around 90 degrees- but RTG volunteers, including Kathy, turned out to help with the birthday party- some of which took place outside in the blazing heat of the day. The award for the day’s most dedicated volunteer had to be Rose who wore the Packy costume. . . which could not have been much fun on such a summer day. But she did it and she inspired spirited ovations whenever she took the stage.
Things had wrapped up and Doug Instines (artistic director of the RTG) was helping with the cleanup when a little boy came up to him with a little hand-painted toy in his hands. It was a birthday present for “Packy” and he was hoping to present it to him. Doug was really touched and took him down to the green room- but as he feared, Rose had already discarded the costume (a huge relief on a hot summer day, I’m sure) and put it away. Rose and Kathy met the little boy and introduced themselves as friends of Packy, told the boy that Packy had already left, and said that they would make sure he got the gift- but they could read the disappointment on his face that he wouldn’t be able to present the gift himself to Packy. “On second thought,” Rose said, “he might still be around here someplace.” And she and Kathy went off in search of him. Of course, what they were really doing was going into the closet, digging out the costume, and getting it on Rose once again. . . and when Packy emerged with Kathy, this kid was beside himself with joy and so thrilled to present his gift to him. (6 or 7 kids brought birthday cards for Packy but this was the one and only gift anyone brought for the occasion.)
These two and the other volunteers had already gone far beyond the call of duty that day – but from what Doug told me, they really didn’t hesitate to do this good deed for this sweet little boy. And as Doug told me about this last night, he had tears in his eyes. And I have tears in my eyes as I type these words and picture that little scene of this boy meeting Packy. . . sweat-drenched Packy. . . and his friend Kathy.
The gift, by the way, resides proudly in Doug’s office as a reminder of why the RTG exists and the sense of magic which they can manage to create in the lives of young and old alike.
pictured above: Packy at his 75th birhtday party at the RTG, with his birthday cake. . .