The Village will transform into a St. Patrick’s Day scavenger hunt tomorrow from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. during the first-ever Village Sham Walk. Organized by junior public relations major Alix Sappington and eight of her fellow classmates, the event will celebrate the holiday as well as promote local businesses.
The walk takes its inspiration from a pub crawl, but instead of pubs, 10 businesses in the Village will provide participants with a free taste of what their business has to offer, Sappington said, as well as provide answers to scavenger hunt questions.
As a project for her Advanced Special Event management class in the Family and Consumer Sciences Department, Sappington and her team have been preparing for this event since the beginning of the semester. Sappington decided against a pub crawl because she wanted the event to include all ages.
“I would totally do something like this,” she said. “I would have been bummed out if I was underage and in the Village they had a pub crawl and I couldn’t attend.”
The Sham Walk will start at D•Luxe, the new bar located above The Cup, which is replacing the recently closed MT Cup. Although D•Luxe will not officially open until April, owner Andy Goth said he still wanted the business to be a part of the event to take participants on a personal tour of the remodel.
Living up to its name, which is French for “classy and elegant,” Goth said the bar will be exactly that. A light-up bar, comfortable couches, and a specialty drink menu are all new features that will set D•Luxe apart. The specialty drink menu will feature the D•Luxe Martini, which is a French martini with a twist.
“This is going to be a place you can come out to,” Goth said. “We will have a couple TVs, some music playing, maybe a jazz musician. It will be a nicer place all the way around. There’s really nothing like that in the entire city.”
Goth, who also owns other participating businesses Sunsations Tanning Salon and Greek’s Pizzeria, said free pizza and VIP tanning coupons will also be available to participants.
Goth said he thinks the Sham Walk will be a good event for all of his businesses in the Village.
“Anything positive and anything new to the Village is good,” he said. “There aren’t a lot of new things happening recently so we’re just trying to contribute to bringing the Village back to life. Getting more traffic to the village is better for Village businesses.”
After visiting D•Luxe and the Cup, participants are free to roam the other businesses as they please. After visiting all of the venues and solving the St. Patrick’s Day themed questions, they will receive a free T-shirt back at The Cup.
Students can either register at the event or preregister at the L.A. Pittenger Student Center by paying a $3 fee that covers the T-shirt costs.
The turnout is going to be larger than the 75 people originally predicted. The event’s Facebook page already has 130 people attending.
If more than 75 people do register and show up, Sappington has a back-up plan. The businesses will be alerted immediately that more participants are coming than expected. Then, the first 75 students to finish the scavenger hunt will receive one of the 75 T-shirts they pre-ordered, and the rest will have the option of ordering a T-shirt and paying for it separately.
Junior business administration major Megan Jackson is one of the 130 attending.
“I’m just really excited for it,” Jackson said. “It’s nice to have it all planned so you know what to do on St. Patrick’s Day. Just to try something new, and see what it’s all about. There isn’t a lot of stuff here you can do so it’s exciting when something new comes out.”
For Sappington, the success of the event has only confirmed that she wants to plan events in her future.
“Event planning can be a large part of public relations, and hospitality management being my minor, the whole purpose for me getting that was event planning, to get that experience, Sappington said. “So it’s been the perfect class.”
In the end, all of the planning and coordinating with businesses was worth it to Sappington, she said.
“We are really excited for the event day,” Sappington said. “It’s been a lot of work so we really hope people get just as excited about it.”
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