Banana Man

I work at Jamba Juice. Our mascot is a dancing banana.
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Our local elementary school had a Jog-a-thon to raise money for arts programs.
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A dancing banana at the jog-a-thon to keep everyone either so annoyed they'd need energy to kill said dancing/cheering banana, or energized, entertained and encouraged to run another lap. I like to think it was the latter.


One thing I wasn't aware of when I signed up for this, was that apparently Banana Man is famous. I realized this when I passed a classroom and immediately saw the kids turn from their studies to the window yelling "Banana Man is here!!!!" with their eyes wide open and grins just as big!

The next 4 hours were filled with even more excitement. I stood at the balloon lap marker, cheering and dancing, and the kids were so pumped. It was nice to see that the encouraging words that would eventually lead me to a raspy voice, helped them pick up the pace and continue jogging with smiles. And even better, they were dancing with me; yelling Banana Power just as loud as I was.

During the jog-a-thon two kids stood out the most. First was a little boy named James, who had not yet entered kindergarten, but was there with his mom... The entire time! He was always giving me huge running-at-each-other-hands-up high fives that were awesome, and I never once saw him get crabby from being tired. I later ran into his family at Raleys and he ran up, gave me a hug and said, "hey banana look how far I can jump" what a cutie, even still with out his nap.

The second was a little girl who took it upon herself to encourage me on every lap. As I was yelling, "good job" "keep it up" "run with banana power" "high five" and getting bruises on my arm from missed high fives, she would run by me dancing, yelling, "keep on dancing banana man, you're doing great!"
She was a sweet heart, it was so good to see a girl so young, already seeing that everybody needs encouragement, even while they're encouraging others.

Of course it was also great that my niece was there, telling everyone she was related to the banana, running to give me hugs, and having fun. Boy I love that girl!

I can't wait for next year, when I'll get even more high fives covered in orange fruit matter, and the kids can run even more!

But for now, FUEL & SLEEP!

Go here for inspiration.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH5ay10RTGY&feature=youtube_gdata_player