Hello everyone! My name is Zach Wilder, and this is the story of how going to Camp Thunderbird led to me becoming an NCAA mascot.
When I was 12 years old, I started my camp journey at YMCA Camp Thunderbird. I grew up in Charlotte, and I had friends who had been to camp. The way they described it made it seem like an awesome place. I could go kayaking, wakeboarding, and mountainboarding all in the same day?! Consider me sold! I spent three out of my next four summers as a camper at Camp Thunderbird. I became a CIT, a junior counselor, senior counselor, and even an activity chief. Camp Thunderbird was my very first job, and I absolutely loved it!
As a counselor, I tended to work predominantly with campers in the 12-15 year old range. The older campers were great. Generally speaking, they were responsible, independent, and cooperative. The one thing that stunk about working with them was the occasional “I’m too cool to have fun” attitude. I hated this.
To me, camp was always about acting like a goofball and trying new things. So whenever I saw a kid who was “too cool” or too shy or too nervous to let loose and dance around in the dining hall, I’d do everything I could to break them out of their shell. (Usually by dancing so terribly that all my campers would make fun of my dancing, thus diverting any potential shame from nervous campers)
Eventually however, there comes a time when every counselor must move on from the camp life. I stopped working at camp midway through college, but I missed it like crazy. I was a sophomore at Syracuse University. I was living in upstate New York. It was insanely cold. I missed the warmth of summer. I missed camp. I found myself sitting quietly in my classes, longing to act like my crazy counselor self once more. That being said, I couldn’t exactly stand up on my chair in class and start dancing to Cascade’s “Every Time we Touch.” I would need to find another, more socially acceptable, outlet.
That November, as I was watching DeShaun Watson lead the Clemson tigers to dismantle the Cuse football team by scoring three touchdowns in the first quarter, I looked to my right and there he was. I found my outlet. Otto the Orange in all his round fuzzy glory. Immediately, lightbulbs went off in my brain. Otto was the goofiest mascot I had ever seen; he’s always dancing around like crazy and getting others to have fun. In that moment, I knew that camp had shaped me into the perfect candidate to be the Syracuse University mascot.
A month later, I was accepted to the Syracuse University mascot program.
Over the course of the next three years, I would dress up and use my camp counselor inspired goofiness to pump up crowds of 35,000 people. I would dance with the parents of new students as they moved their child into their freshmen dorms. (embarrassing the heck out of the recent high school grads) And above all, I would try to get students to let loose and have fun.
Being a mascot was my favorite part about college. It was three years filled with tremendous joy, unyielding school spirit, and lots and lots of sweat. Some of my favorite memories were:
· Watching Syracuse football defeat the #2 nationally ranked Clemson Tigers in 2017. (sweet payback!)
· Traveling to Omaha, Nebraska to cheer on the Syracuse men’s basketball team as they took on Duke in the Sweet 16
· Spending two hours in Target doing whatever I wanted. (like riding around in the motorized shopping carts and using a pool noodle to joust with shoppers)
· Volunteering at the Orlando Children’s Hospital as part of the ACC football tournament community outreach initiative
My time at Camp Thunderbird led to me becoming a more outgoing individual, and the love that I had for camp led to me becoming a mascot. Camp affects our lives in many ways, some of which are unforeseen until after our time on the sunny shores of Lake Wylie have come to an end. However, for every individual who has called camp home, a life of adventures and new experiences awaits.
- Submitted by Zach Wilder
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