The History and Legacy of the Gremlin
Mrs. Kuh, Director of Development for Grace Church School, recently sat down with me to discuss the role of the Gremlin as our school mascot from a different perspective than that of Ms. Arons, Chair of the Board of Trustees, captured in the recent article, Wait… We’re the Gremlins? .
As Director of Development, Mrs. Kuh’s main job is to oversee fundraising for the school and its many functions, including raising funds for the scholarship fund, the faculty fund and large capital projects like the new gym at the high school campus. Several years ago, she was also responsible for communications at GCS.
Mrs. Kuh has been a dedicated member of the Grace Church School community going back more than 20 years when she helped to create the original Gremlin as the school’s mascot. Mrs. Kuh jokingly referred to herself as the mascot’s “midwife” pointing out that she was one of the primary people who aided in the creation of the Gremlin. “It came about because we didn’t have a mascot. In fact, in those days, we were just starting to have real teams,” said Mrs. Kuh. The original idea behind the Gremlin came from the gargoyles that can be found in the library of the 86 campus as well as on the outside of Grace Church. However, as ‘gargoyle’ isn’t very catchy, and generally seems fairly intimidating, Mrs. Kuh searched for a happier alternative. Hence, the idea of the Gremlin came to be.
(gargoyle in the lower school library)
With the help of of Bonnie Erickson, a woman most famous for creating the character Miss Piggy from The Muppets as well as Phillie Phantic, the mascot of the Phillies, the MLB team of Philadelphia, helped to design the Gremlin itself. Her original design featured an elf-like character with its hands facing the sky.
(the original gremlin)
Since then, the Gremlin has been altered by other artists for different events such as the construction of the high school campus and athletic wear. Mrs. Kuh made a point that if the Gremlin has been modified since its origin, it can be modified again: “My feeling is, if people are worried about the look of the Gremlin, we could certainly change the look.”
The branding committee of the Board of Trustees of GCS has been focusing for the past two years on refining the fonts, colors, images and icons that represent Grace Church School. However, according to Mrs. Kuh, “It hasn’t dealt with the issue of the mascot.” A proposal for reviewing the mascot was instead brought up in a much more casual sense than other aspects of the agenda for the meeting of the Board. “It was presented, I think, in a very negative way: all the things wrong with the Gremlin,” added Mrs. Kuh.
After it was brought up, discussion of the Gremlin was postponed and scheduled for the 2017-2018 school year. “There have been no board resolutions,” Mrs. Kuh clarified.
According to Mrs. Kuh, a few focus groups will be put together to get a sense of the community’s feelings towards the Gremlin as the school mascot. She added that changing the mascot would greatly affect the alumni of our school who are used to cheers of “Go Gremlins!” coming from the bleachers. “They might think it a little strange that every 20 years you can decide you’re going to be somebody else,” said Mrs. Kuh, and, according to her, it really is a matter of identity.
Mrs. Kuh’s prominent point throughout our discussion was that, instead of completely changing the mascot, it would be preferable to somehow alter the appearance of the Gremlin to make it more appealing to the community.
As one of her final remarks, Mrs. Kuh referred to her own investment in the Gremlin: “I’m only going to tell my story, but I do think there is something about being consistent about who you are.”