Character counts, Dan Meers, who makes a living wearing a wolf costume and acting silly, told about 100 Iola fifth-graders Wednesday evening.
Meers, better known as Kansas City Chiefs mascot K.C. Wolf, was the featured attraction at USD 257’s annual D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) graduation.
He bounded onto the Bowlus Fine Arts Center stage amid hoops and hollers, dashed into the audience to give kids a hug or high five, before finally getting serious.
“Your life is like a coin,” Meers said. “You can spend it however you wish, but spend it wisely. Someday you’ll look back and you don’t want to have any regrets.”
The ABCs of success, Meers said, are attitude, behavior and character.
“Attitude is a checkup from the neck up,” he said. “Those who succeed have a positive attitude. It’s developed by how you think.
“Your thoughts determine your behavior,” Meers continued. “You can be a buzzard or a bee. A buzzard looks for dead animals to eat,” while “bees look for honey. You always find what you look for, and it’s just as easy to look for good things in people as it is the bad.”
People who succeed have a common denominator of making character a high priority, he concluded.
“Character is who you really are. My mom and dad always told me that if you take care of your character, your reputation —what other people think of you — will take of itself.
“Bad company corrupts good character, so choose your friends wisely. Make good choices, and good things will happen to you.”
Being a mascot covers the past 27 years of Meers’ life.
He was the Missouri University Tiger in college, spent a year performing in Busch Stadium in a bird outfit for the St. Louis Cardinals and for the past 22 years has been K.C. Wolf.
“Old mascots never die, they just smell that way,” Meers said with a giggle in explaining how even a summer outfit made of mesh quickly raised a sweat when he was sequestered inside.
In a much-awaited portion of Meers’ presentation, he called Nic Zimmerman, a Jefferson Elementary fifth-grader, to the stage. With animated cooperation, Meers showed how he dressed before games and appearances by putting the costume on young Zimmerman.
“I think I’ve found my successor,” Meers said, as Zimmerman gyrated and took a bow.
D.A.R.E. instructor Mike Ford led the fifth-graders in the D.A.R.E. dance, accompanied by Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” and diplomas were awarded.
