Where’s Waldo {2019 Edition}

Waldo is hiding in a community near you. Can you find him? Each July we enjoy a Waldo hunt in our local community sponsored by a local bookstore. You need to see if they do this near you because it is an absolute blast! Basically my kids love it so much that my son dresses up like Waldo during the event.

The general idea is simple. For the month of July, you visit local businesses and hunt for the hidden waldo statuette in the stores. Once you find the hidden waldo, the store will give you a stamp in your passport. A local bookstore hosts this event so that is where you pick up all the details and the passports. We always try to find as many Waldos as we can. The bookstore will usually have a minimum you should find to be entered into a grand prize drawing. They may also have drawings just for participating as well. Turn in your passport by the end of the month to the bookstore hosting the event and you are in to win. You’ll want to check with each bookstore on the deadline for turning in the passport. We go on weekends usually so sometimes we run into certain businesses being closed (if a bank is participating or a dentist, for example.) so that can make it tricky to complete the entire passport, which is why the bookstores generally have a range you have to get instead of completing the entire book. At the end of the month the bookstores I participated with hosted a Waldo party. They had cookies, photo-ops and prizes! The kids had a blast! I love the local business aspect as well because it gets you into businesses you may not always go into. I also love supporting local bookstores!

We’ve found several Waldo hunts near us so we try to catch a couple throughout the month of July. It’s a great weekend event for the kids, it generally gets us outdoors and we have such a good time as a family.

To help you find one of these fun events near you, I reached out to all the bookstores I know participated last year and here are the ones I know will be participating for 2019 in Washington state.

A Book For All Seasons
703 US Highway 2, Leavenworth, WA 98826