Erin Blank with one of her many furry friends.
When she was in second grade in Wilkes-Barre, Erin Blank and her family lived with her grandfather, who was a huge New York Yankees fan. She soon knew the team’s lineup and starting rotation.
In 1978, Erin’s parents took her to her first in-person baseball game at The Vet in Philadelphia, where she discovered the team’s new mascot, the furry, green Phillie Phanatic.
“I had a big passion for baseball, and mascots just went hand in hand with that,” she said.
Erin, who owns Keystone Mascots in Leola, Lancaster County, was 11 when she got her first mascot gig, working for the promotions department at Boscov’s during Christmas.
“I was a Smurf,” she said, donning a costume to walk around the Wilkes-Barre store and greet shoppers. “And just make them happy.”
In her junior year at Crestwood High School in Mountain Top, Pa., the school’s football team made the playoffs for the first time. She dressed as the Mountain Top Eagle, in a costume rented from Boscov’s mascot vendor. For her senior year, she convinced the principal and student government to create a unique costume invoking the school’s Comets nickname.
“And it was bad,” she said of the costume, which included a 20-pound papier-mache head and a swooping tail. “They used to call me the banana slug. It was nasty. But I loved it.”
Paws pitches in for Tigers
Erin’s passion was anything but sluggish, however. She went on to be the Golden Bear mascot at Kutztown University, where she studied art education; helped the Reading Phillies develop the Screwball character; and designed, built and performed as the Washington Capitals’ first mascot, Winger.
She was a mascot for the Baltimore Spirit indoor soccer team, the Hershey Wildcats outdoor soccer team, and the Hershey Bears hockey team. Team mascots, like the players they complement, aspire to the big time, and Erin was no exception.
She got the call to The Show in 1999, beginning a four-year run as the Detroit Tigers’ mascot, Paws, during which she witnessed the closing of Tiger Stadium, the opening of Comerica Park, and the retirement of legendary broadcaster Ernie Harwell.
By the time she left, she said, she was doing 81 home games and 250 paid appearances as Paws. From April 1 to Oct. 1, she had two days off.
She met Mike Veeck, a promotions consultant to the Tigers and son of baseball team owner and promoter Bill Veeck. Mike also owned minor league teams, which led to Erin creating the character of Mudonna, the talking, skirt-wearing pig mascot of the independent St. Paul Saints.
She worked one year with Raymond, who owns Raymond Entertainment Group, helping with training, costume production and sales. From college through her years with the Tigers, she ran Keystone Mascots on the side. After her stint with Raymond, she restarted the business.
Rooty featured on Hulu
Keystone’s niche is high schools and small colleges. Its client roster includes Eastern Lancaster High School; Franklin & Marshall College, Bloomsburg University, Towson University; the Lancaster Barnstormers and York Revolution baseball teams. Keystone developed the Filbert flamingo for Isaac’s Deli.
Keystone also created Lebanon High School Cedars’ Rooty, a costumed tree that was featured in Hulu’s documentary series, “Behind the Mask.” You can view the first episode here:
When I met with Erin in June, costume constructors Janice Capwell and Brittany Bridi were on hand. Plastic containers bore labels such as “fleece,” “seal fur” and “corduroy.”
Projects in production included a second Dexter character for Knoebels Amusement Resort (“cloning,” Erin called it); a costumed Chesapeake Bay retriever, complete with life vest, for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources police; and the Blue Wave mascot for Darien (Conn.) High School.
Keystone’s team comprises four costume constructors, 10 performers and 10 mascot trainers, the latter from as far away as Florida and Missouri. The trainers help at Keystone’s summer camps, where performance techniques are taught along with safety, sportsmanship and teamwork.
Erin estimates that there are two dozen costume makers in the United States and Canada. Her costumes fetch $4,000; the luxury mascot makers might charge multiples of that.
“I like to call us the Hyundais of the mascot/costume world,” she said. “We’re a good, solid car that you’re not paying for the brand.”
She has a sliding scale, she said, and charges high schools less than she does pro teams.
“I will try to work out monetary solutions for the people I work with,” she said, “because I love this so much. I love being in the costume and I love seeing other people bring fun and joy to others dressed up as costumed characters.”
