MOSES LAKE – What originally was a painstaking chore has become an award-winning result in the Moses Lake School District’s recent rebrand of its high school mascot.
The Moses Lake School District has been selected for the Award of Excellence by the Washington School Public Relations Association (WSPRA) for an exceptional 2022-2023 branding/image package. Per the mandate imposed by House Bill 1356, Moses Lake was required to change its high school mascot from the ‘Chiefs,’ to something else after 50 or more years of ‘Chiefs’ being the school’s mascot moniker.
HB 1356, which passed in April 2021, prohibits the inappropriate use of Native American names, symbols, or images as public school mascots, logos, or team names. As a result, a mascot committee was formed and was comprised of students, staff, business owners and community members. Through numerous surveys, the Moses Lake community provided feedback and submitted more than 1,500 unique ideas for the Mascot committee to research and refine. The Mascot Committee then selected three mascot options for students, staff, and community members to vote on. As a result of the survey, "the Mavericks" were selected to represent Moses Lake High School.
Various administrators worked with design firm Varsity Brands for the new logo, fonts, colors and characteristics of the former MLHS Chief logo.
The school district says the MLHS Maverick evokes strength, determination, and perseverance – embodying the values of our community and the future of Moses Lake High School.
WSPRA indicated that it chose to award the Moses Lake School District because the Maverick design communicates and supports purpose, its font and graphics add visual interest, the elements of design are creative, the design is aesthetically pleasing and contains objects placed in a creative way, and the graphics effectively grab the attention of the audience.