Visitors to Discover Uniontown this weekend
For a single weekend, visitors in downtown Uniontown will have a chance to take part in a different type of hunting season. Discover Uniontown’s Past, Present and Future Weekend will continue today and Saturday. The event’s main attraction is a city-spanning scavenger hunt that involves 20 local shops and restaurants.
Jessica Hajek, director of development for Commercial Center Associates, said the event came about following monthly meetings with local shops and restaurants.
“It’s great to have festivals on the street. But, when there are festivals on the street, we found, with these merchants, that people rarely go inside these shops or restaurants,” Hajek said.
“What we’re trying to do is get people into the shops and restaurants, so that they see all we have to offer,” she added.
According to Hajek, those who participate in the scavenger hunt will have to visit downtown businesses in order to complete the challenge. Each merchant submitted a two-line riddle to help participants identify their business.
Participants receive the first clue when registering. As they solve each riddle and visit the corresponding business, the merchant will provide the next clue and cross off their business on the participant’s guide.
“We thought it through and have a fairly easy route for people to find their way around,” Hajek said. “We’re estimating that it would take someone, at the most, two hours to complete the scavenger hunt.”
Hajek said that those who complete the scavenger hunt earn the chance to win a $500 Discover Uniontown gift certificate and more.
“The businesses also are pitching in gift certificates of their own,” Hajek said. “We estimate that the total prize could be at least $1,000.”
In addition to the grand-prize winner, which will be taken from a drawing of all of the entrants, three other prizes will be awarded. The categories are first person to finish, youngest to participate and oldest to participate. Participants can register at any of the participating businesses, which are listed at www.discoveruniontown.com.
Complete forms are due by noon Saturday. The prizes will be awarded at that time.
According to Hajek, the event’s timely name reflects the entertainment and activities planned for the weekend.
The past was celebrated through song Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m. as the Dutch Treat barbershop quartet crooned its way through the city. Today’s musical offering moves into the modern age as the Kendall Brothers perform on stage at Storey Square from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Hajek said that a food vendor will be on hand, and downtown businesses have been invited to offer samples of their products.
“We wanted to get people out at lunchtime because there are so many people that work downtown who truly don’t realize all that is here,” Hajek said.
The seeds of the future will be planted on Saturday with Spring Planting Day, hosted by the Fayette Progress Council, the Community Foundation of Fayette County and the Green Gardeners. Volunteers are asked to meet at 9 a.m. in Storey Square for planting assignments.
“The best way we thought of incorporating the future is planting flowers downtown,” Hajek said. “We thought that that was a sign of growth in the future.”
Even though Discover Uniontown’s Past, Present and Future Weekend takes place during the yearly National Road Festival, Hajek said the two events are not officially associated.
“We knew that there would be more people in downtown Uniontown that weekend, so we thought it would make sense to have it then,” Hajek said.
According to Hajek, the wagon train is to travel and stop on West Main Street Saturday at approximately 2:15 p.m. in front of the Fayette Chamber of Commerce.
Residents and local dignitaries will be able to greet the convoy at that time.
To coincide with the festivities, the UniontownDowntown Business District Authority is sponsoring a car show along West Main Street from noon to 4 p.m.
Hajek said she hopes that the weekend will familiarize many area residents with the stores and restaurants in downtown Uniontown.
“If the event goes off as well as we planned, it will definitely become an annual event,” Hajek said.
“My goal is for us to see a lot of familiar faces and new faces on the city streets of Uniontown getting to know the excitement that is there,” she added.