See-um the collie, the shaggy mascot of the 1985 campaign to replace Spokane's old Coliseum, lives.

Or at least to the extent that a costume can be said to be alive. At the very least, it still gets around.

Cherie Moore, who sewed the costume and sometimes wore it for the "Wouldn't It Be Great!" campaign to sell bonds for a Coliseum replacement, said reading the Spin Control Files column about that campaign made her chuckle Tuesday morning. She called to say she got custody of the costume at the end of the campaign and has had it ever since. But it wasn't retired with the campaign loss. It has been pressed into use sporadically, as recently as this Halloween when one of her grandchildren wore it for Trick or Treating.

"It's been used as the Beast from 'Beauty and the Beast' for a school play," Moore said. It also made a trip to Hawaii one year when one of the members of the campaign made a trip to the islands and wore it to march in a Thanksgiving Day parade.

Moore was working on the campaign when one of the staff came up with the idea for a mascot that was a play on words: a collie See'um for the Coliseum. She had studied theater and costume design in college, and campaign manager Evelyn Gutschmidt tasked her to create the collie suit. Moore was also inside the costume for some campaign events and for sign-waving duty on street corners as Election Day approached. The photo that ran with the story of the mascot waving to voters in downtown Spokane is probably her inside the suit, she said.

 

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