Nation & World News
Who keeps mascots clean and game ready? This woman. See how she does it.
- Mom who drowned sons speaks out more than 20 years later
- Man allegedly breaks into home, hides under bed for 3 days while charging cellphones
- Letter from Susan Smith: 'I am not a monster'
- Picky bear drinks 36 beers, leaves the Busch for someone else
- WATCH: School choir dedicates emotional song to teacher with cancer
She transformed our founding fathers and other statesmen into Star Wars characters. It sounds like a job of historic proportions and it could be.
Ingrid Crepeau is the one who makes sure that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt and their friends ready to make their run and meet fans at the Washington Nationals games.
And recently she was the one who took thread to needle to transform those same presidents turned mascots into Darth Maul, Princess Leia and Chewbacca for the team's Star Wars Day on July 19.
But how do you get the job of making sure the Racing Presidents look presidential?
Crepeau told the Washington Post that one time she saw Roosevelt and he was having trouble moving around.
"Teddy had a really badly broken frame. Poor guy, he could barely see," she said.
The frame was strapped to the person inside of the suit's back and the large, oversized head wasn't balanced.
She built him a new frame out of light airplane aluminum, and from then on she's the seamstress to the presidents, just the mascot variety.
Her first year after making Teddy a new frame, she made five baseball caps.
The third season, she was tasked to make 27 mascot shirts, each as big as a pup tent, using six yards of fabric, the Post reported.
But 2015 brought a top secret plan, dress all of the mascots needed Star Wars costumes. And she knocked it out of the ballpark and into a galaxy far, far away.
In addition to George as Darth Maul, Thomas as Princess Leia and Teddy as Chewbacca, Abraham Lincoln was Darth Vader. William Taft took the persona of Boba Fett. The latest addition to the racing roundup, Calvin Coolidge, appeared as Luke Skywalker.
But Crepeau doesn't just focus on the team's presidents.
She also in charge of fixing up the team's bald eagle mascot Screech, Talon of the DC United soccer team, Slapshot for the Capitals hockey team, G-Wiz for the Wizards and Pax the Panda for the Mystics.
So where did she learn to fix and create for the mascots?
She has run DinoRock Productions from her Maryland home with her wife and business partner, Michele Valeri for 30 years.
Before that, she was fascinated by puppets from a young age, the Post reported.
Crepeau has been making puppets since she was a child, she told the Post.
