A roaring mascot

The NNRG Mascot at the NNRG Open Day in October - behind local people from the community cars which attended the event.

Since the Northern National Restoration group was founded in 2006 the stepping stones and fundamentals were etched into the corner stones of the group.

Hayley Smith Writes:

Large amounts of mental strength and courage was needed from the founding members of the NNRG who are Craig and Alan Smith as well as Ian Robinson. Leading themselves into the unknown depths of bus restoration and the challenges to overcome on the journey that they started.

The idea of a group mascot stemmed from a light hearted conversation between Hayley and Alex W, once the ball started rolling a deeper thought process began to take place. A plethora of ideas started to flood in of what could be achieved with a mascot as the face of the NNRG and well as a tool for community engagement at our open days and rally’s which we attend and host throughout the season.

So.. the question was “What will the mascot be” as we are bus restorationists the natural first thought was of a bus or a bus driver as a mascot. However we wanted our mascot to mean something to the group and how far we have come through having courage and strength as well as self confidence and bravery it quickly became evident that this mirrored exactly what a lion stands for making the choice of the mascot very easy!

Norman the NNRG lion had his debut on the 28th of October 2023 during the depot open day. Many of the visitors faces lit up with joy seeing Norman waving to the crowds of people as it was completely unannounced of a mascot being revealed. Norman took centre stage posing in front of some of the guest vehicles and cars as well as making himself at home in the cab of the NNRG fleet.

So the Question is… where will you spot Norman? #NNRGNorman