Fun Friday: The History of buildOn’s Mascot, A Sheep Named Mayor Daley

Mayor Daley is one of buildOn’s mascots in the Chicago office. You may have seen his photo posted on Instagram and our Facebook page along with our other mascot, Rahm the Rooster! People often ask how he arrived to the Chicago office. Mayor Daley found his way here via buildOn’s former Vice President of the Midwest, Quinton Snodgrass, who named him after Chicago’s former mayor.

Quinton went to meet with Peter Ricker, a donor at MB Real Estate during the winter holiday in 2010. Every year the MB Real Estate office would have an amazing Christmas tree in the lobby with a different theme: one year it was “Under the Sea” and another year it was “Raining Cats and Dogs.” This particular year it happened to be “Barnyard Animals.” There were cows, chickens, pigs and sheep all around the tree – and they were being sold to raise money for buildOn’s programming. Someone had purchased Mayor Daley, a huge stuffed sheep, but didn’t want to take him home. So, when Quinton went to meet with Peter he said, “Take it. You can give it to the kids.” Quinton, dressed up in a nice suit, he carried the huge stuffed animal four blocks across downtown Chicago to the buildOn office.

Now Mayor Daley is a regular a fixture. He greets people who visit the office, and been photographed frequently. Here are some of our favorites: