St. Patrick’s Day Scavenger Hunt Spotlights Downtown Businesses
On March 18, dozens of people dressed in green could be seen meandering around downtown Marshfield, matching papers in hand, as they searched for pots of gold. These individuals were participants in Main Street Marshfield’s first annual downtown scavenger hunt to help celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
“The idea came from a fellow business owner downtown,” said Angie Eloranta, Main Street Marshfield Executive Director. “She came to me with the idea and the go-getter attitude to help get it going. I know other communities have done similar scavenger hunts, but we wanted to make this simple for the businesses and fun for the community to participate in.”
The premise was simple. Once businesses expressed interest in participating, Main Street Marshfield gave them a “pot of gold” to place at their businesses. Eloranta created clues that would lead the scavengers to the businesses.
“The clues were strategic,” she said. “I wanted the scavengers to learn a little bit about the businesses and their history that they might not realize just by visiting.”
Once participants determined which business to visit, they had to find the pot of gold hidden within the premises. There were 13 clues total, but scavengers only had to find 5 to be entered in to win a prize.Those who found 10 or more were entered into a drawing for a chance to win the grand prize of $100.
“This was a fun, community-focused event for the businesses,” said Eloranta. “It allowed
them the chance to make an impression on new, potential customers in a fun way! Some of the businesses did little gifts for the kids or cookies for the scavengers. I think everyone had a good time with it.”
She added that there was also quite a bit of shopping happening during the scavenger hunt as well.
“The scavengers received extra entries into the prize drawing for any receipts they turned in from the downtown stores,” she said. “It wasn’t a race, which allowed people to look around a bit and do some shopping if they wanted.”
With the success of this inaugural scavenger hunt, Main Street Marshfield plans to host even more events like it, and perhaps some throughout the summer months.
“It went very well! I said earlier in the week that I would be very happy to have 40 people come and do the scavenger hunt, well we had 60! A lot of families, which was great to see!” said Eloranta. “People are always looking for fun things to do, especially families, and especially in March! This event was for all ages and it brought a lot of exposure to our downtown businesses. Great event for all.”
