FRUITPORT, Mich. — Nestled comfortably in between the food court and the JC Penney at The Lakes Mall is a holiday icon who's hard to miss. And for some people, Kris Moose is a very familiar face in the weeks and months leading up to Christmas.
"Kris Moose was originally at the old Muskegon Mall in downtown Muskegon for decades, and through the 1980s. When the mall closed down, the moose went into hiding, and the manager of The Lakes Mall wanted to bring Kris Moose back. So in 2018, the manager went on a search for him and found him in hidden away in a basement," said Joe Hebert.
Hebert is now retired, but at the time he was the coach of the Techno Trojans, which is the robotics team at Fruitport High School. The mall's manager wanted the Techno Trojans to bring Kris Moose back to life.
"I remember walking into our temporary lab we had at the time and just seeing this big moose head set up at one of the tables for some reason," said Caden Whipple, a 2021 graduate of Fruitport High School.
"I had heard about it before from relatives who had gone to the Muskegon Mall before it closed down and getting to work on it was pretty neat - to get it back up and running to its former glory."
The task wasn't easy. Kris Moose had collected years worth of dust, so cleaning him up was the first order of business. Then, the Techno Trojans took on the mechanical issues.
"He had no electromechanical parts still in him. It was just the head. We had to build a frame for him, put new pneumatics into the system so we can control his mouth and eyes and head movements, and then put in a programmable logic controller for automation and movements," Hebert said.
Justin Stepke, a 2022 graduate of Fruitport High School, said Kris Moose was one of the first projects where he was able to take what he learned in school and apply it to the real world.
"I was a freshman at the time we did it. I know it was the first project I tackled with the team, and I know it was a great learning experience for me doing it, and learning from the other team members as well," he said.
Some of the components that were needed for building Kris Moose's frame and the structure were donated businesses, both local and national. Hebert says it was a "community effort" that took six weeks. Kris Moose was ready for the holiday season in 2018 at the Lakes Mall.
Kati Holtrop has since become the operator of Kris Moose. Sitting in a box under the iconic character, she controls both the mouth and the head while the eyes blink automatically every 15 seconds or so. Kati is also the voice of Kris Moose. She has a microphone in her control room and she uses a camera mounted in front of Kris Moose to see and hear who she's interacting with.
"Frequently I'll have people my age and older who will come up and be like, 'Oh, Kris Moose. I remember you from the old mall!' One guy came up and told Kris 'You were my best friend when I was a little kid,'" Holtrop said, noting that the next generation of kids in Muskegon County seem to love Kris Moose as well.
"Some of the kids will stand here for like five, ten, 15 minutes. They just keep asking different questions and talking to him, showing him their Pokemon cards and their little toys and their dance moves. It's so much fun being able to see that kind of reaction and to know they actually have conversations with Kris Moose. It's so great."
If you'd like to visit Kris Moose for yourself, you can find the full schedule on The Lakes Mall's Facebook page.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Watch 13 ON YOUR SIDE for free on Roku, Amazon Fire TV Stick, and on your phone.