Most people think that having a reputation, a personality and even an Instagram account demands a third dimension, but Flat Chris disproves this theory on all counts. Flat Chris is a local celebrity at Revere events. Students stand in line for the opportunity for a photograph.

Flat Chris is a life-size cardboard cutout of Revere High School senior Chris Anderson. Flat Chris follows Anderson around to some of his activities, whether that means stationing at the football game concession stands or watching his baseball games.

Anderson has attended Revere for his entire academic career, and he participates in numerous activities in and out of school with Flat Chris by his side. Flat Chris was originally Anderson’s family’s idea. Anderson’s mother, Ellen Anderson, took the lead.

“Flat Chris was an idea his sister and I and his brother-in-law came up with over the summer, just sitting around and laughing. . . . We’re like ‘we need a cutout of Christopher. It’s his senior year, what’s something fun we can do to make it even more special?’ And that’s what we came up with. We kind of based it on Flat Stanley, so Flat Chris has adventures,” Ellen Anderson said.

Flat Chris was a fun surprise for the band community. People were delighted to see this symbol of support for the senior band member. Senior Jacob Hermann recalls seeing him for the first time.

“He kind of just showed up out of the blue one day. No one kind of knew about him until we all looked over, [and] we saw just big, flat cardboard Chris. He kind of took off from there,” Hermann said.

One of Flat Chris’ many destinations are football games. Anderson has been in the marching band all four years of high school, so he attends all of the football games. Anderson enjoys the band community and plays numerous instruments.