by Christina Elias

In 1995, the Student Council Organization introduced a new member to the STA community – a star to represent the students and spirit of St. Teresa’s Academy. This shining star, STA’s very own Twinks, has cheered on the sports teams for almost 20 years and has no intention of leaving any time soon.

According to an article in the 1995 edition of the Teresian yearbook, “Many students had wanted a school mascot so SCO surprised the school with Twinks, a star to represent STA” (“SCO, NHS-By Membership only,” by Ali Schwartz and Amy Aldrich). A Feb. 10, 1995, issue of the Dart reports that “amid fanfare and accompanied by security guards, the new STA mascot, Twinks, was introduced at a recent assembly. Purchased by the SCO to appear at sporting events and raise school spirit, Twinks was enthusiastically greeted by the STA student body.”

The original, similar to the Twinks students are familiar with today, matched its mirror image on the gym floor of Goppert. Ms. Sue Christenson, the athletic director before current history Mike Egner, had the floor re-done “back in the mid-1980s . . . she had them put a picture of a star with eyes and a mouth on the floor,” according to Egner.

“It’s still there: Twinks,” Egner, who was the athletic director from 2000 to 2010, said. “A couple years after that, somebody had the idea to make a costume mascot. So they went to a company that makes costumes and asked them to make a costume of Twinks. So that’s where Twinks came from. He came from the idea of an athletic director. I don’t think it came from the students.”

Ms. Debi Hudson, the SCO moderator at the time, helped plan the creation and introduction of the first-time school mascot. According to Hudson, STA “may have had a star with a face on it or something that was a mascot, but . . . that was the first time we purchased a costume.”

Hudson said that the Twinks costume was ordered from a high school and college mascot company through a catalogue, and that she doesn’t “even know where the name Twinks came from.”

“I think that was the name in the catalogue first so we just kind of kept it,” Hudson admitted. “I don’t think we ever used the word ‘Twinks’ that much at the beginning.”

According to the same 1995 Dart article, “Twinks had a major defect – an adhesive problem. The costume fell apart after one wear and had to be returned to the manufacturer for repairs . . . ‘I guess for now, it just wasn’t in the stars for Twinks to be here,’ said SCO member Amy Aldrich.”

It seems Twinks has had many wardrobe malfunctions, as he is now dirty and torn from a rumored Sion “kidnap” about 11 years ago. According to Egner, however, Twinks was not kidnapped – he was lost by our own students.

“Here’s what happened: We had a basketball game at Sion, and some people from our spirit club took Twinks out to Sion and left it there,” Egner said. “Some Sion girls found it after we were gone and they took it [in their car] and they dumped it out on Ward Parkway. That’s how he got all dirty and torn up.”

Since then, Egner was especially protective of the STA mascot, stating that he “would never let anybody take Twinks out of the gym after that.”

According to Egner, Twinks has remained mostly unaltered to this day, and will continue to embody our star spirit in future.