The "eagle" has landed at Whitemarsh Elementary School
Whitemarsh Elementary School welcomed Preston and Steve’s BirdBot to the nest earlier this week, courtesy of first-grader Margo and fourth-grader Abby Macchione, who had the chance to babysit the WMMR morning radio show character for a night.
BirdBot is part of a week-long, pre-Super Bowl stunt launched by the Preston & Steve show, which airs weekdays on WMMR-93.3 FM. The Philadelphia Eagles-themed idol is essentially a bald eagle mask underneath a plastic helmet that is attached to a bucket, adorned with wings and talons as well as other trinkets that are attached to him throughout his travels. BirdBot is making the journey from Broad Street to Bourbon Street, stopping at locations throughout the Philadelphia area before arriving in New Orleans for the Super Bowl.
Fans of the show are able to follow BirdBot’s journeys on Instagram, and figure out where he is in order to take him on their own excursion. That’s exactly what the Macchione sisters did, with the help of their father, Ryan and his wife Jackie. They learned BirdBot would be in Lansdale at an escape room, and made plans to meet up with the family that had him.
“We all took some pics with the kids together, traded laughs, and were on our way with BirdBot,” said Mr. Macchione.
The Macchiones took BirdBot on a trip down a bike trail in Miquon and brought him to Jasper’s in Conshohocken for some buffalo cauliflower. The next day, BirdBot boarded the bus with Margo and Abby to go to school (with permission from Principal Joshua Perlman, of course).
"I’ve been closely following BirdBot’s adventures on Preston and Steve through WMMR, so when Mr. Macchione contacted me about the opportunity for a visit, our entire school community was excited," said Mr. Perlman. "We felt like we had a real celebrity in the house. GO BIRDS!"
While at the school, a few students and teachers got to pose with BirdBot for pictures, and they added their signatures to the bird, as well as a message that “WES loves the Birds!” From there, BirdBot went with Mr. Macchione and his youngest child to daycare, as well as to a hospital in Delaware. For his road travels, he was carefully buckled into the front seat.
“We also visited Dupont Nemours in Delaware to put some smiles on the faces of the oncology nurses and docs,” said Mr. Macchione. “They took good care of our family when Margo was being treated there for stage three cancer, when she was 5. She is all better now!”
Mr. Macchione then handed BirdBot off to another fan of the show, and the popular eagle’s journey to the Super Bowl continues. You can follow his travels on Instagram by following the “birdbotphilly” account.
