OXNARD : Mascot Search Gets a Berry Small Turnout

Gloria Chinea was one of four judges who waited patiently Tuesday for somebody, anybody, to walk through the door of the Oxnard Community Center and audition for the role of Super Strawberry--official mascot of the 11th annual California Strawberry Festival.

“I thought this was going to be booming,” she said, staring at the makeshift stage littered with tiny strawberry candies. “Maybe it was the time.”

The committee hopes to produce at least four people to don giant red strawberry suits and make public appearances promoting the festival, to be held May 21 and 22 at College Park in Oxnard.

“We’ll be booking Super Strawberry at all kinds of fun appearances and sending out strawberry alerts so people will know where to catch a glimpse of our new agricultural super-hero,” festival manager Bill Garlock said. “We’re looking for potential berries that have some speaking ability and can articulate . . . the different aspects of the strawberry festival. We’re not looking for veteran actors by any means.”

This is the first year that the 11-year-old festival has sought mascots. The idea was sparked by Pastoral Familiar, a nonprofit group whose food servers dressed up in strawberry costumes at last year’s festival.

Festival representatives at the Oxnard auditions were at a loss to explain why there was such a poor response to the idea.

“Every time you try something new, you have to struggle with it,” said festival committee member Don DeArmond, adding that auditions in Hollywood today would probably attract more would-be Super Berries. “If we don’t have anybody from this area, we’ll pick four from that area.”

But shortly before 4 p.m., Terri George, 36, of Oxnard walked into the community center and said she wanted to be Super Strawberry.

“My brother told me about it,” she said. “I thought, ‘What the heck.’ At first I thought it was kind of silly, dressing up like a strawberry.”

George said the satiny red costumes covered with black faux seeds and a green hood were “corny,” but she added that “a strawberry’s a strawberry--you can’t make it look very sexy.”

The Super Strawberry job will require about four hours a week as the festival nears, Garlock said. The berries will not be paid for their time but will receive tickets for both days of the festival and a night’s stay at the Radisson Suite Hotel.

“I knew it didn’t pay,” George said, “but you get to talk to a lot of people. It seems kind of interesting. It’s something that not everybody gets to do.”