Scooter, the Spare The Air Mascot, Comes to Life.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – June 4, 2010 – The Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District is using a new approach to educate families about the region’s Spare The Air campaign. It involves the campaign’s new life-size mascot, a dog named Scooter. Scooter made his public debut on May 15 at Scooter’s Clean Air Pet Fest, the Spare The Air season’s kick-off event. Scooter is also the star of a Clean Air Kids Activity Book, a Web page on www.SpareTheAir.com titled “Scooter’s Corner”, his own Facebook page and he actively “tweets” on behalf of the Air District’s Twitter account. The Sacramento region will see a lot more of Scooter this summer, as he continues to represent the Spare The Air campaign at community events throughout the region.
The Spare The Air campaign, which has been widely-known in the Sacramento region for almost two decades, educates individuals about the health effects of poor air quality and gives them ways they can help reduce air pollution. Scooter brings a fresh face to the campaign, targeting kids and teaching them what they can do to make a difference in reducing air pollution and encouraging them to have their parents sign up for Air Alert, a daily air quality forecast that is sent via e-mail.
A list of the community events that Scooter will be attending is posted on “Scooter’s Corner” at http://www.sparetheair.com/scooter.cfm. “Scooter’s Corner” also features a message from Scooter, games and the downloadable Clean Air Kids Activity Book.
People can also become Scooter’s friend on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/scooterthesparetheairdog, where they can read regular status updates about Scooter and view pictures from community events. In addition, people can follow Scooter and the Air District @AQMD, on Twitter.
The purpose of these new outreach tools is to increase awareness from individuals who may feel poor air quality doesn’t impact them, and encourage them to consider air quality before they drive their cars or participate in outdoor activities.
“Parents want to do the right thing, but sometimes we drive more then we need to or we don’t think about the health impacts of sending our child to soccer practice on a Spare The Air day,” said Lori Kobza with the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District. “Children are great at delivering important lifestyle change messages to their parents like the importance of signing up for Air Alert or checking the District’s Website for the daily air quality forecast.”