ALEXANDRA BODE | Staff Reporter
Michael Kaltenmark, the handler for Butler University’s live mascot and director of web marketing, is reminding Butler community members and others that Blue II’s memory will live on forever through the book Good Boy, Blue!
“I decided to write this book because we are always looking for ways to connect our mascot program to the larger community,” Kaltenmark said.
Dogs appeal to kids and families, which helps make this connection, Kaltenmark said.
“Also, Trip and I do school visits and read books,” Kaltenmark said. “We wanted to have our own book to leave there.”
The book has been available for over a week and has already has done very well in regards to sales.
“The response to the book has been tremendous,” said Janine Frainier, manager of the Butler bookstore. “Everyone loves the mascot program.”
The books are sold at the Butler Bookstore, on the Butler website, and on both Amazon.com and mascotbooks.com.
“We are very pleased with how well the sales have been going and how well the response has been on social media and traditional media,” Kaltenmark said.
Once the cost of the books is settled, half of the proceeds will go to the illustrator, Butler alumnus Jingo M. de la Rosa. The other half goes to Butler’s live mascot program, Kaltenmark said.
Saturday brought the first official book signing.
It was held in the Butler Bookstore.
Trip was there in support of his brother’s legacy.
“Naturally, the bookstore is one of the top selling sites for the book because it is where people tend to go to look for their Bulldog apparel,” Frainier said.
The book signing dates continue with signings held at the Butler Spirit Shop in Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indy Reads Books, the Indianapolis Children’s Museum, the Indiana State Museum, and Three Sisters Books & Gifts in Shelbyville, Ind.
In the words of Kaltenmark, as written in Good Boy, Blue!, “Very soon, everybody was saying, ‘Good boy, Blue. Good boy!”