Meet the new BQKids Mascot!

Meet Baron Lutra, the new mascot for the Barons Quay kids club, designed by nine year old Percy Helm from Northwich.

Two months ago Barons Quay launched its Design a Mascot competition asking local children to create a character for its new kids club, BQKids. The brief was to design a mascot that is happy, fun, energetic, exciting and colourful! The children were also asked to give their mascot a name and provide some information about their personality.

Following some tough competition, Percy Helm’s beautifully drawn otter was the judges favourite and will be brought to life by a professional artist later this month.  

Percy, who goes to Wincham Community Primary School, cleverly named his fish-loving, semi aquatic mammal Baron, for obvious reasons and Lutra because it’s the scientific name for a European otter. Baron Lutra will be the official face of BQKids – appearing on posters and merchandise in the future.

The new mascot loves swimming at Puddle Ducks, catching movies at the Odeon and eating fish based dishes at Barons Quay restaurants. 

The competition attracted over 100 entries from local children aged 11 and under. These were shortlisted to 30 finalists by the Barons Quay management team – all of which received an Easter egg for their efforts.

After a lot of deliberation, the final 30 were whittled down to three brilliant designs: including Baron Lutra, Brady the Butterfly by Annabelle Palin aged 10 and The Baroness by Josie Turpin aged 10.   Followers on social media were asked to vote for their favourite, but it was neck and neck between Baron Lutra and Brady the Butterfly so Barons Quay Centre Manager Lina Higuita had the casting vote.

She said: “It was wonderful to see so many entries for the Mascot Competition. The creativity on show has been amazing and I would like to thank everyone who took the time to enter. Shortlisting to the final three was tough; I was hoping that the public would make the decision for us as all three were all brilliant characters!  

“In the end I chose Baron Lutra because he ticked all the boxes: great illustration, fun personality and a local connection! He’s going to make a great mascot and I hope local children love him for many years to come.”

Percy Helm said of his design: “I am so happy that I won the competition. I was very surprised as there were so many amazing entries. I really loved designing my mascot – I enjoyed researching Northwich and otters are one of my favourite animals.”

Parents can gain access to free family events, special offers, competitions and more by signing-up for BQKids now: https://baronsquay.co.uk/kidsclub/