New Events Planned to Highlight the Moose’s Quarter-Century Birthday
Trevor Phipps
The time of year has finally arrived when Woodland Park residents and visitors must keep their eyes peeled for a possible moose sighting in the “City Above the Clouds.”
And if that lucky occasion occurs, area shoppers are greeted with great cost savings, along with an ideal photo opportunity and a rare and memorable event.
The city’s famous moose is likely to be seen strutting his stuff around town for the next several days to celebrate his 25th birthday.
More specifically, the town’s famous “Moose Is Loose” campaign kicked off last weekend with the grand arrival of the Moose at Tweeds Fine Furnishings in Woodland Park. After the event’s kickoff festivities, the Moose is scheduled to travel around the city, visiting a number of locations until the promotion ends on Feb. 23.
This year, the city-wide sale features new activities as part of the 25th anniversary celebration. The festivities include a new event to engage the community as well as the addition of a high-tech scavenger hunt adventure.
According to Tweeds’ owner Tanner Coy, the “Moose Is Loose” Scavenger hunt is now available on a cell phone app as a way for the Moose to move into the advanced technology of the 21at Century. Visitors will have the duration of the sale to frequent a number of local businesses and participate in a slew of activities that can earn them more than $100 of Moose Bucks. These dollars can be used at any of the local businesses participating in the promotion.
“My favorite of the new events for this year is the Moose scavenger hunt,” Coy said. “It is very cool. It is app-based, so the Moose is modernizing now that he is 25 years old. So, the app is called ‘Let’s Roam’ and it is built for this kind of thing. We have used it to build a custom scavenger hunt in Woodland Park that includes 22 stops. Individuals can go just by themselves, but we highly recommend going as a team or group. Somewhere between two and 10 is a good number. Each group can go to each stop at their own pace, so there is no deadline until the end of the campaign on February 23.”
However, Coy said that the scavenger hunt this year will be quite different. Instead of finding clues that lead people to the next clues, this scavenger hunt works by directing participants to a location where they will face certain challenges. The way the groups finish the challenges can earn them points in various ways.
For example, at the Solid Grounds coffee shop in Woodland Park, the scavenger hunt will have challenges like “Espresso Yourself” where visitors are tasked with writing a “deep coffee thought” on the board and taking a picture of it. Other challenges there include solving a riddle and guessing the number of coffee beans inside a jar.
“Once a group completes the challenges at any particular stop, they earn five moose bucks that can be spent at any of the businesses,” Coy said. “So, we are incentivizing the scavenger hunt heavily by offering that five moose bucks per group per challenge. For instance, if a group goes and does all of the challenges at all 22 stops, which earns them 110 moose bucks that they can then go spend in town. And then if they do complete all of the stops, they also get to go back to Tweeds and take a pick of a hoodie, hat, long sleeve t-shirt or crew neck.”
Moose Is Loose Offers New Events for 25th-Year Anniversary
Last year, the annual sale featured a dinner tour where people were encouraged to try different restaurants. This year, the Moose is Loose sale will culminate with a special “Paint the Town” dinner and art show that takes place the last weekend of the sale (Feb. 22).
The first stop of the dinner and art show takes place at the Eichman Gallery at Woodland Park’s Park State Bank & Trust. The Red Diamond Gastropub will serve a drink and appetizer ,while attendees view a special selection of art on display.
Next, the tour goes to Our Reserve Gallery where Boards and Barrels will serve a main course and a drink. Then, visitors will stop at Tweeds Fine Furnishings for a dessert and drink provided by Wines of Colorado.
To end the event, the after-party will take place at Judge’s Char-Grill where ticket holders will get a free drink coupon at the eatery along with a raffle. Those Moose Is Loose-goers who want to purchase tickets for the tour can do so at Mooseisloosesale.com.
The Moose Is Loose pursuit also plans on bringing other events back, such as the coffee crawl and the art walk. The Moose Coffee Crawl takes place this Saturday and ticket holders get the chance to travel to four different coffee shops, where each establishment will be preparing a special beverage for the event.
On Feb. 22, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., the infamous Artwalk takes place, which brings visitors to eight different businesses in town, featuring local artists as well as demonstrations from the Destination Art School. Then, from 1 to 3 p.m., the Mountain Artists will have an exhibit at the Woodland Park Public Library.
