Campo’s new librarian, Liz Herring, has taken an interest in the stuffed cougar in the library and has asked the students and teachers for their opinions and input in choosing a name.
The cougar itself was at one point alive, and during its life it was “a bit aggressive…coming into a park (in Livermore) and attempting to attack people”, said Herring, causing him to be euthanized. His body was in the possession of local fishermen for a while, where he was stuffed and later donated. Then, the AP Biology teacher Mr. G took possession of the taxidermied cougar and donated it to the Campolindo library.
During the first few weeks of school, there were posters with QR codes around campus that students and teachers could scan to submit a name suggestion for the cougar. Towards the end of August, there were 25 names for submission. “All of those submissions went onto a google form and people picked their top three,” said Herring.
This left the library staff with a list of the top five names for the cougar. The names were: J. Edgar Cougar, Caleb the Kindness Cougar, Leonardo DiCatrio, John Cougar Mellencampolindo, and William Shakespaw.
During the second week of September, the same posters with a QR code for cougar naming were posted around campus, but these forms were for students and teachers to choose from the top five names. In the third week of September, the four names with the least amount of votes were eliminated every day until the final name was revealed on Friday, September 22nd.
Herring submitted the name William Shakespaw, but is also very fond of the name John Cougar Mellencampolindo, which is a reference to the 80-90’s musician John Cougar Mellencamp. “I’m afraid that it’s not going to win because students don’t know who that is,” said Herring.
Another one of the names that has a particular meaning is Caleb the Kindness Cougar, because “Caleb is the name of the mascot of the Kindness Club,” said attendance technician Stephanie Sliwinski, aka Ms. S.
Caleb is also a cougar and was created by Sliwinski’s daughter, who graduated last year, who originally made the social media page for the Kindness Club. Choosing the name Caleb for the library cougar would connect it to the mascot of the Kindness Club.
The current President of the Kindness Club, sophomore Kendall Sliwinski, said “I think we should vote for Kaleb the Kindness Cougar because it has a positive message, like it’s the Kindness Club.” However, when the name Caleb the Kindness cougar was input into the forms, the name “Caleb” was supposed to be “Kaleb,” because the name of the Kindness Club Cougar is Kaleb with a K for kindness. “If it wins we’re going to ask to change it to a ‘K.’”said (Kendall) Sliwinski.
On Friday, September 22nd, the name voting ended and the final name Leonardo DiCatrio was chosen. Although the name doesn’t have a particular tie to Campo culture, the clever spin-off of the famous actor Leonardo DiCaprio was favored among the Campo community, thus making Leonardo DiCatrio the most popular choice among the students and teachers of Campolindo.
