The Downtown Lethbridge BRZ wants Lethbridge residents to hop into spring with the 3rd Annual Downtown Easter Egg Hunt, returning Mar. 20 until Apr. 2. Participants can win gift cards and gift baskets from 12 eggs hidden throughout downtown and each egg found gives egg hunters an entry into the BRZ’s Easter giveaway.
According to David Velazquez, BRZ operations coordinator, the Styrofoam eggs are one-foot tall with a QR code in the centre. “The first one is always at the Downtown Lethbridge BRZ office. Once people come to that first egg, they scan the QR code and they’ll get a clue to the next egg. As well it will take them to Google Forms, where they can enter a prize draw.”
Every egg scanned, Velazquez says, is another entry into a prize draw and the more eggs found, the bigger the prizes. Clues range from anagrams to physical descriptions of a building to math equations. “We do post a little cheat sheet on our downtown accounts in case anyone needs a little bit of that extra help.”
Eggs are located in business windows facing outwards, “so people can scan them from outside,” says Velazquez.
Velazquez notes close to 800 people participated in the first egg hunt and last year there were a lot of people too. Families were also walking around downtown with their phones to different businesses, which Velazquez says was great to see. “We got feedback from places saying, ‘I didn’t even know this store existed’ or ‘I’ve never been to this restaurant,’ which is exactly what we want. That’s what we are trying to do is bring people downtown and expose them to our amazing businesses and restaurants.”
Coming up with the clues is fun for us, adds Velazquez. “We want to see families exploring downtown, visiting new businesses and entering to win big prizes.”