The COVID-19 pandemic has kept people stuck in their homes for the past year, but Seward is hoping to change that. The city’s Parks and Recreation department is putting on scavenger hunts as a way to get people outside.
The department’s spokesperson Jenny Rutledge spoke to KSRM, saying that it’s a good way to enjoy an event outside since nothing can be done indoors. “We started this program around Thanksgiving time for the break. Our facility closed in March 2020 and we haven’t been allowed to get in there. So we haven’t done any indoor activities. We’ve been really trying to reach out of the box, here. We created the Scavenger Hunt to get people outside. The first one was on Small Business Saturday. It was focused on a lot of the small businesses downtown and a lot of special spots as well. This past one that I did was all about the mural that we have here in Seward cause we’re the capital of Alaska for murals. I do it about every two weeks. If the people take pictures and email them to me, they receive a small little prize from me.”
Rutledge says that these events are also a way to help support local businesses, “Another thing that happened, especially with COVID, a lot of people moved here and then COVID hit. I’m hearing that they don’t really know much about Seward. I’m hoping this will help people get familiarized with the town that they are living in. I think it gets the people kind of an idea of what our town has to offer cause a lot of people just don’t really know what we do here, especially in the wintertime. In the summer, we are all working pretty hard to make up for the winters here. Since our facility has been closed, we’re really trying to just…outdoors is the only option we have for people to recreate right now. We’re really trying to get them out in the snow.”
Anyone interested can find the scavenger hunts on the Seward Parks and Recreation’s Facebook page.