The Whitehall-Coplay School District officially unveiled its new physical mascot during the Aug. 12 board of education meeting.

“We have a special guest for us today,” student Gabby Jakes said.

Jakes was one of the students who submitted the winning name of the district’s new mascot — Big Z.

A train whistle sounded in the room as the brand-new mascot ran in to greet the board.

For years, WCSD has not had a physical mascot at sporting events. They simply used the word Zephyr to connect them.

Students and staff felt that, by creating a physical mascot, the community would have a recognizable symbol to help increase awareness of the school programs. The goal of this mascot was also to help engage the student body and the district staff and assist in building a stronger team spirit around the WCSD campus.

The mascot is essentially a figure with a train head wearing maroon and gold overalls, symbolizing that of a conductor. The mascot pays homage to the word Zephyr, the name of a train that used to travel through Whitehall Township.

Athletic Director Bob Hartman was not able to attend the Aug. 12 meeting, so Renee Sallit, assistant to the superintendent for academic programs, acknowledged his efforts in helping this to come to fruition.

“Having a mascot here to support the Zephyr train and support everything we have in Whitehall has been a goal of his for a long time,” Sallit said. “We’re happy that we’re able to bring this together and have Big Z around for a lot of our events. Thank you, and we can’t wait to see Big Z out there.”

Big Z will officially make a debut to the students and families during back-to-school nights in the fall.