Children staggered in groups of no more than 10 to follow COVID guidelines during the Waterford Parks and Recreation “Betty the Yeti Scavenger Hunt” event at Hess-Hathaway Park on March 13, 11 a.m.- 2 p.m.
The cost to attend the hunt was $6 per child and an additional $2 for non-residents, a price point that makes Lindsay Lurke, her daughter, happy.
“I love that we can participate in the event for under $10,” said Lurke. “My daughter is 4 and loves scavenger hunts, so she is very excited for this event.”
Details of event
Video Credit: Miriam Bingham
WPR is providing 10 clues for each child to guide them through Hess-Hathaway Park to find the recreation’s lost yeti named Betty. This leads the children to Betty and a prize.
Jeannine Poulin, coordinator of WPR, took ideas from other departments in Waterford who have done similar scavenger hunts in the past to plan the scavenger hunt.
“The clues took me the longest to write,” said Poulin. “It took me a couple of hours to come up with them. Actually, the prep of printing the clues and cutting the clues because we’re doing one clue per child, so not everybody is touching the same things, that’s taking the longest. All in all, it took 5 to 6 hours when I calculated everything.”
Breakdown of costs
Waterford taxpayers pay .5 mill for their property value toward the parks and recreation department, annually. So, non-residents who don’t pay for Waterford taxes are charged the non-resident additional fee for attending a WPR program or event.
“Typically, the non-resident fee is $5 per person for our programs,” said Alison Swanson, director of Waterford Parks & Recreation. “But for some events, because it’s a one-time, one-day event, we will reduce that cost to $2 to make it more affordable for those participating.”
In addition to the ticket taking care of admission, one major cost of the event is a goodie bag prize for the children. The cost spent per goodie bag is $1.62.
“We started with one prize,” said Poulin. “Then we branched out with little things we could add to the bag to make it more better-looking for the kids when they see the bag. But the idea really is the actual scavenger hunt and the time it took to putting it altogether and getting stuff ready.”