GREENFIELD — Meet Franklin Cow-nty, the new mascot of the Franklin County Fairgrounds.
After a 16-month-long process to develop the mascot’s look, the Franklin County Agricultural Society unveiled and introduced Franklin to the community on Friday morning at the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce breakfast. Steve DeJoy, chair of attractions and entertainment at the Franklin County Fair, said Franklin Cow-nty will be there to welcome every visitor to the fairgrounds.
“We hope that moving forward, when people see Franklin, they’ll think of the Franklin County Agricultural Society,” DeJoy said.
In particular, DeJoy said, the Agricultural Society had been looking to improve the happiness and experience of young children who are attending the Franklin County Fair, and thought that having a friendly mascot would make kids smile.
“I had seen where other organizations were coming out with mascots — it’s the biggest craze in fairs right now,” DeJoy said. “So I took it and ran with it, and thought, ‘What’s a better fit for agriculture than a cow?'”
He added that while a cow was an obvious fit to represent the Agricultural Society, the process of creating Franklin took more than a year. The society looked into six different mascot companies, all of which offered similar cow costumes. The society wanted its mascot to be different from any other fair that used a cow as a mascot, and was able to find a company in Alberta, Canada, that created a unique look for Franklin.
The project also received local assistance. Melissa Murphy Embroidery and Custom Apparel, a Bernardston-based business, embroidered the fair logo on the mascot’s outfit.
DeJoy said that, complete with a black baseball cap that has an image of the fairgrounds’ iconic Roundhouse on it and red overalls that show the Franklin County Agricultural Society’s logo, Franklin Cow-nty is a representation of what the society is all about.
“There may be lots of other cow mascots,” DeJoy said, “but there’s only one Franklin.”
