If you happen to be in the town of Mandurah, Australia, chances are you might bump into a bubbly lady dressed as Wally!
The lady spreading joy and positivity in her community is none other than Lisa Kelly or Mrs Kelly, a mother and Mandurah resident since 1970.
Wally is everywhere!
Source: communitynews.com.au
Armed with a quirky persona, Lisa has helped to promote and support local businesses and other community events in Mandurah. She even has a Facebook account (Wallyfunwithlisa Promoting Businesses/Events) dedicated to this cause.
Mayor of Mandurah, Rhys Williams presenting the ‘Local Legend’ award to Lisa Kelly.
Source: Mandurah Mail
According to Mandurah Mail, the Mayor of Mandurah, Rhys Williams, said, “Lisa, Mandurah’s famous Where’s Wally character, has made an amazing contribution to the local community, schools and business sector, by spreading happiness and positivity everywhere she goes.”
“Lisa is a great example of an inspiring volunteer doing great things for her community and for that, we thank her,” he added.
Lisa loves putting a smile on people’s faces as she is also well-known for encouraging people to join in her funky train station dances after concerts. That’s not all, she also volunteers her time at the local library and drives a bus for her mother’s nursing home.
Source: communitynews.com.au
To those wondering why she chose the Wally character, she said, “I started dressing up as Wally and people loved it. I started meeting people I’d never normally meet and everyone wanted selfies with Wally and I didn’t want to take the costume off after that…watching people’s reactions to Wally makes it all worth it.”
For all her efforts in spreading goodness, she was recently named the ‘Local Legend’ by Mayor, Rhys Williams!
Keep on spreading goodness in your own unique way, Lisa!
If you don’t already know, here are some fun facts about ‘Where’s Wally’:
Source: popularonline.com.my
1. ‘Where’s Wally’ is a British series of children’s puzzle books created by Martin Handford.
The series features the iconic, Wally, dressed in red-and-white-striped shirt, bobble hat, and glasses. Wally was first introduced to the world in 1987 when the first book was published. Wally soon gained popularity with other merchandise created in his name!
2. Wally’s creator, Martin Handford took about 8 weeks to complete one double-page spread.
Each picture in the puzzle book comes with funny stories and activities to find Wally as well as a host of other characters.
3. Over the years, other characters in the series have also become famous.
Apart from finding Wally, children can also be on the lookout for Wenda (with a similar dress sense as Wally), Wally’s dog, Woof, the magical Wizard Whitebeard, and Wally’s nemesis, Odlaw!
4. Wally goes by different names in other countries.
Source: waldo.fandom.com
In America, he is Waldo; in France, Charlie and in Germany, Walter, to name a few.
5. Wally gets smaller progressively in each book as he is surrounded by a host of other characters!
Wally is around 1 cm tall in the first book but in the seventh, his size ranges between 0.17cm and 0.28cm! On the first page of the first book, 225 characters were featured and on the last page of the last book, 850 other characters join the series with Wally.
(Source: The Book People)
* Featured image sourced from communitynews.com.au
