Sparta Smiles: Dr. Flowers Organizes Local “Bear Hunt”
Families can ride around downtown on a scavenger hunt
SPARTA-The bears are hiding in plain sight, sitting in windows all around downtown Sparta. All it takes to find them is a map, a car and a camera. Thanks to Dr. Ashley Flowers and a number of volunteers, families can take part in a scavenger hunt without breaking any of the state’s quarantine rules.
The rules are simple. There are 20 bears sitting up in the front windows of houses and businesses across the downtown district. Armed with the map you can see below this story, families can slowly drive around the marked routes until they find each one. You don’t have to get out of the car, just slow down and take a picture of each bear before driving on to find the next one. Once you have pictures of all 20 bears, post the pictures to the Ashley Flowers Family Dentistry Facebook page with the hashtag #SpartaSmiles. Everyone who finds all 20 and posts the pictures then gets entered into a drawing to win local restaurant gift cards.
“I saw on tv where people in Raleigh were putting bears up in the windows,” Flowers said. “I thought this would be something fun for Sparta.”
The idea comes from a 1989 children’s book by Michael Rosen called “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.” In the book, five children decide to go hunt a bear, followed by their loyal dog. They travel through grass, a river and several other obstacles before finally seeing a bear. In recent years, the book has become a popular tv series, mobile app and preschool song. During this year’s quarantine, it’s also served as the inspiration for a number of scavenger hunts.
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But in order to make it work in Sparta, Flowers needed teddy bears. She called Alleghany Cares and told Director Vickie Scott about the idea, asking for bear donations. Scott found 20 bears for the project and donated them. Next, Flowers reached out on her social media accounts, asking for volunteers to set up each bear and some to house them in local homes and businesses.
“We just looked at downtown Sparta on a map and looked at places where it was safe for people to drive slow [or stop],” Flowers said, explaining how the route was chosen. Then she reached out to local restaurants, asking for gift cards to send out as a reward.
With the bears set up, the prizes in hand and a map set up, everyone then started posting about it and sharing those messages across social media, inviting families to go out on a bear hunt.
“The idea is for families with little children to safely get out of the house and take a drive in downtown Sparta,” Flowers said. “It’s essentially just a fun thing for kids to do safely from inside their cars.”
For anyone wondering how this is allowed under the governor’s ‘stay at home’ rules, there are a few exemptions to his order, as we explain here. You can leave to receive goods and services, take care of others, get groceries or for mental/physical exercise and activities. Basically you and anyone you’re quarantined with can drive, walk, run, hike or bike as long as you stay six feet away from anyone not in your household.
This map will be up through Monday, May 4 and then Flowers said they’ll make a decision based on what the state does later in the week. The current executive order runs through May 8. If at that point North Carolina enters Reopening Phase I, then they may shut down the hunt.
“If we remain on a ‘stay at home’ order, we may do a different animal,” Flowers said. “We want this to be a way to get the community involved and raise everyone’s spirits.”
