HUTTO – A herd of hippos thundered through city hall Wednesday as Hutto celebrated World Hippo Day. Hundreds of people attended the event, many in hippo-themed clothing or costume. A 15-foottall inflatable hippo named Happy greeted visitors and was the star of the selfies, while volunteers from the city, the chamber of commerce, the police department and the school district passed out hippo-shaped cookies, bags of candies and popcorn, and hippo themed activities.
Saniah Bates attended the event with her mother and younger sister.
She took time off from working on a hippo mask to talk about her favorite parts of the events.
“Well, I like the snacks and I also like the crafts. I’m making a hippo!” she said, holding up the colored page.
“The Hippo is really the heart of our community, so everybody is coming out and celebrating that,” said Taylor Arrington, city program and events specialist. “This event takes a few months to put together, but we’re thinking about it all year, because we’re always thinking about hippos.”
A highlight of the event was the showing of a short documentary film, “Hippo Loose In Hutto: The Legend of Hutto, Texas,” produced by the city.
The movie featured a new song called “Hippo Strong” written by Veterans’ Hill Elementary music teacher Lexie DeAnda and performed in the movie by her third-grade class. The movie was shown twice, both times to a packed audience. After the second showing, the children performed the song in person.
“I wanted to incorporate all of the beautiful cultures that we have in Hutto so that was my main goal when writing this song,” DeAnda said. “We were really excited to be involved, happy to be invited and happy to share our voices with the community.”
“This was a story that was begging to be put on the big screen for many years now,” said Allison Strupeck, Hutto director of communications.
“I hope this movie reinforces the concept of the Hippo nation, meaning we are all united in our love of the Hutto community. Whether you’ve been here a few weeks or a few decades, we hope that you see yourself on the screen and find that we are all hippos in our heart.”
The movie highlighted two popular origins for the hippo legend. The most well-known story is that a hippo escaped from a circus train and found its way through town to the creek.
Another involves a cold snap during a high school football game that forced the players to pad their uniforms for warmth. The overstuffed Hutto players returned to the field looking like hippos.
Both legends are discussed on the movie, which can be seen on the city’s YouTube channel at https:// youtu.be/2Jv_U_bbFxk.
“I want to believe the football game story,” Strupeck said. “I love the underdog aspect to it and that represents the Hutto story. They underestimate us and we come back strong and better than ever.”
Event attendee Elizabeth Bonura said she enjoyed believing in the train version. “I love the legend of the circus train coming through and the hippo falling in love with Hutto so much it refused to get out of the creek,” she said. “I love it because it tells us why hippos are in Hutto. It never wanted to leave.”
Photo by Edie Zuvanich Photo by Edie Zuvanich
