When the owners of Helium Highs decided to retire, the fate of their costume characters, including the iconic Pink Gorilla (which was also a mural on their building for many years) was up in the air. Wynona Fullum, a long-time employee at the party supplies store, decided to take the Pink Gorilla and a “handfull” of other characters to start her own little business.
A Handfull of Characters was born in 2017. “Thunder Bay still needs the Pink Gorilla in their lives,” Fullum says. She had been working at Helium Highs for almost 20 years, and spent a lot of time wearing the Pink Gorilla costume, going to birthday parties, retirement parties, schools, the hospital and retirement homes. Fullum figures she has been wearing the Pink Gorilla for a total of almost a quarter of a century.