March 1 Deadline Approaching for 2019 Find Waldo Local Celebration

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ABA member stores have until March 1 to sign up for the seventh annual celebration of Find Waldo Local, the month-long shop local scavenger hunt that invites customers to search for Waldo at small businesses nationwide.

Find Waldo Local logoEach year, the shop local campaign brings together small business communities across the nation in hosting scavenger hunts for the striped and bespectacled picture book character. Hunts, which run the entire month of July, lead searchers through participating stores in their local shopping districts, and Waldo hunters are eligible for prizes throughout the month at participating businesses. At the end of the month, the campaign culminates in a closing party at the organizing bookstore.

Online preregistration to participate in Find Waldo Local 2019 opened on Wednesday, January 23; registration will be capped at 250 ABA member stores.

As it has for the past seven years, Candlewick will provide participating independent bookstores with a toolkit with everything needed to stage a Find Waldo Local event in their community, including 25 mini Waldo standees, 25 window clings, 125 prize buttons, a Waldo poster, eight Waldo prize books, reproducible passports, $1 coupons, party activities, bag stuffers, and a sample pitch letter and press release as well as social media assets for Facebook and Twitter.

New for this year’s kits, booksellers will find a mini standee for Odlaw, Waldo’s mysterious mustachioed nemesis, who will join Waldo in hiding inside stores. In addition, back by popular demand, Candlewick will also provide a four-foot-tall Waldo standee to use for photo ops with kids.

Full details and registration requirements can be found in the 2019 campaign brochure. Questions should be addressed to [email protected].