With the fall season officially having hit Alaska, family afternoons at the beach, enjoying the ocean, will soon begin to dwindle. A local mermaid hopes to keep the love for the ocean ignited despite the cooler temperatures. She will be in Seward on Sunday, September 27. The aim of her visit will be to swim, take pictures with kids, answer questions about life in the ocean, and spread a few smiles to children and adults alike.
Lilybean The Alaskan Mermaid spoke to KSRM News on Thursday, saying that her mission is to take the negativity that 2020 brought to the world and offer families an opportunity to smile, appreciate the ocean, and enjoy her mermaid show: “My mission with this is to make sure I’m able to spread happiness to the kids of Alaska who were so sad, and to also let them know that they are wanted, loved, important, and needed, and how much of a difference they can make in the world by just being in it, and how the world is so much better because of them. Just by their smiles and the energy that they’re giving off, they’re making the world so much better.”
She has been emerging from waters around Alaska throughout the Summer. Her largest event, thus far, was in Homer when over 300 people turned out to interact with a mermaid for the first time. Her Seward stop will be at Lowell Point on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. There will be a story time, as well as questions-and-answer session with all of the kids at the beach. Despite being a mermaid, she plans to be out of the water while in Seward: “It’s gonna be a lot of fun! I’ll be more out of the water because I don’t want the little mermaids and mermen-in-training to get wet, so I will be able to get out of the water a little more and let them ask me questions about what mermaid life is like before having to get back into the water.”
So far, she has swam through much of Alaska, spending time with her sea pals that the kids love to ask about, Oreo Cookie and Humphrey: “I have been in Whittier, which is fun, except for the seaweed gets so tall that I lose a lot of my friends in there, so I can’t see them. I swam in Cook Inlet and that’s pretty muddy, Seward, and Homer. I really love Seward the best because that’s where I get to see Humphrey, and all of my sea lion friends, and Orio Cookie and my orca friends.”
While Lilybean The Alaskan Mermaid may not often emerge from the icy waters of an Alaskan winter to visit her friends at the beach, she is planning on finding ways to stay connected with her land-legged friends who can find her on Facebook to see where The Alaskan Mermaid will be next, including possibly at birthday parties. Also, the parents who come out to see the wonders of a true Alaskan mermaid should know that she is looking to finally upgrade to a grown-up tail that the kiddos can see, with even cooler scales to experience.
Lilybean said that being sick earlier this year inspired her to dig-deep to ensure that Alaskans smile a little more, alongside her on this great Alaskan mermaid adventure: “They’re seeing me out there in my tail and they’re running up to me. For me, how could I not find joy in 2020 when I just made all of the kids smile, and their parents smile? For a moment, just for one moment, they’re not thinking about badness in the world.”
