He’s the world’s most famous fictional simian known for a long-running series of children’s books about him and his friend, a man who wears a yellow hat. Readers of all ages have loved Curious George for many years. Now, they can get up close and personal with the chimp thanks to a friendly competition making its return.
Curious George is making a rare appearance in this city but you have to find him first. Starting on Friday, July 20, he’s going to be hanging around the city. Since he’s such a mischievous chimpanzee, he’ll be in hiding. Finding him is part of a fun scavenger hunt being put on by the St. Albert Public Library.
“We have had such a great response over the years to our scavenger hunts, but we wanted to change it up a bit this year and decided on the much-loved Curious George,” said Ashley King, the library’s children’s services co-ordinator.
In the stories by H.A. Rey and Margret Rey, Curious George is an orphaned chimpanzee from Africa that is adopted by The Man with The Yellow Hat to live with him in the big city. George is more familiar with the freedom of exploring the jungle, so being on the loose in the concrete jungle often gets him into trouble of one sort or another.
It will work much the same as similar past events that incorporated the Where’s Waldo character. Participants will be given maps and passports to start them off on their adventures. They will need to check out 11 businesses and visitor attractions while using their keen detective skills to track him down at each site. Once they’ve done so, they get a stamp on their passports to mark each success.
Those venues include the Arden Theatre, the Art Gallery of St. Albert, the Bookstore on Perron, Candy Bouquet, the Father Lacombe Chapel, Fountain Park Recreation Centre, the Grain Elevators, Midtown Apothecary, the Musée Héritage Museum, The Running Room and the St. Albert Public Library, naturally.
Filling out the entire passport gets them an entry for some marvellous prizes. Entrants can also increase their chances to win prizes by tagging the scavenger hunt locations on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag #curiousstalbert.
To get things started on the right foot, Curious George will be making a special appearance in the lobby of St. Albert Place during a kickoff party between 10:30 and 11 a.m. on Friday, July 20. Everyone will get the chance to meet George, make a monkey mask and enjoy a fun photo booth. Wearing yellow would be really getting into the spirit of things, but is entirely optional.
After that, the game will be afoot. Participants will have exactly one week to complete their tasks. A wrap-up party will be held back at St. Albert Place from 10:30 to 11 a.m. on Friday, July 27, when there will be more activities and snacks as well as the grand prize draw.
