The Oakdale Summerfest Medallion Hunt is back again for its eighth consecutive year, promising a $1,500 cash prize, sponsored by the Oakdale Business and Professional Association.
The first clue was revealed at 9 a.m. on June 18 and they will continue to be issued at 7 a.m. each day this week until the medallion is found.
Clues are posted on the city of Oakdale website, can be picked up at City Hall, or by calling the medallion hotline at 651-734-2615.
As always, the medallion will be "creatively hidden" and in a location where people "don't have to climb, swim or dig," said event coordinator Larry Eberhard.
Past medallions have all been found in city's 25 parks, including last year's in Tanners Lake Park. It was the second time the medallion was hidden in that specific park since the city began its medallion hunt in 2000, said City Clerk Sue Barry.
Though the hunt is open to all ages from any location inside and outside the Oakdale city limits, Eberhard said residents have predominantly been the winners in the past. "By and large, it's a very simple and innocent process," Eberhard said. He added that the medallion hunt is designed to be "very much family oriented ... (and to encourage people) to look around and explore the parks."
During last year's hunt, Oakdale resident Kari Hill, along with her children Nathan and Lauren, came up against numerous treasure seeking families, but was surprised one day to find some who claimed to be "professional" hunters.
Surprised at their seriousness, Hill told the professionals good luck and that she hoped to see their name in the newspaper.
"Then it was me that found it," she said, laughing.
The Hill family spent most of the day during last year's Summerfest week scouring the parks, only to stumble upon the medallion at Tanners Lake Park on Saturday after the sixth clue was released. They had already searched Tanners that day, Kari said, but she got twisted around and decided to go back one more time, only to find the 4-inch diameter clear plastic coin.
Kari Hill said the medallion hunt is a "great community building event" that allowed her family to see what the city parks had to offer, exactly the goals of Eberhard, Barry and other Summerfest organizers.
Copyright 2007 Lillie Suburban Newspapers.