Lately the Chamber of Commerce in Martinez has been rewarding businesses with a visit from a beaver mascot. No I’m not kidding. 7 years after the last beaver was seen in Martinez and 17 years after the city decided it would be better to kill them all, the Chamber made a decision to purchase a beaver costume…not just any costume either…the cadillac of costumes. They even launched a campaign to solicit names from the public.
Last week I got a call from the Chamber Ceo inviting me to participate in the subcommittee to chose name.
The committee consisted of myself, Kevin Murray and Mark Thompson of the John Muir Association. It was pointed out the the wearer of the costume was often female and that the beaver mascot of Market and Main was male, so we were steered towards female names. Which was fine for me because I have always thought that we owed the entire beaver story to Mom’s courage anyway.
The top two contenders shook down to be “Eager” and “Marina” both of which I liked.
But in the final selection it seemed that Eager was a great name for any beaver anywhere but Marina was unique to Martinez so we chose Marina, which I love because its the origin story for our beavers and their destination of choice every night.
All Hail Marina!
Apparently the beaver costume idea has been floated for many years but was rejected as too controversial. Now that we have new leadership in Martinez its time has finally come true.
And it only took 17 years!
