Be You Rock Hunt a big hit in St. Charles
The St. Charles Business Alliance had no idea the Be You Rock Hunt would be so popular.
SCBA Marketing Strategist Carley Salomon came up with the challenge as a way to build on the popularity of the city's Be You sculpture and promote local businesses. Ten rocks were hidden downtown along Main Street between Fifth Avenue and Fifth Street, and if you found one with a colorful Be You message painted on it, you'd win a bag filled with local goodies.
When the hunt began Tuesday morning, dozens of people converged on downtown St. Charles. By 1 p.m. - four hours after the hunt began - nine of the rocks had been found.
The final rock was found Thursday, ending the event Salomon had planned to last through the weekend.
"This is way bigger than we ever expected it to be," she said. "Not every town has a sculpture like that so we thought it'd be a great idea to build off that. People were out everywhere at 9 a.m. looking for the rocks."
The group publicized the event on social media, and several people went on Facebook eager for clues and posting pictures of the rocks they found. Two of the first hunters to find rocks were Veronica Regelbrugge, 16, of Sugar Grove and Jacob Ras, 9, of St. Charles.
Instructions on the back of the rocks led hunters to the SCBA office on Main Street, where they received a limited edition Be You bag with items from Magnolia Soap and Bath, Kilwins Chocolate and Ice Cream, Arcedium Coffeehouse, the St. Charles History Museum, Kimmer's Ice Cream, Sage Healing Collective and the St. Charles Park District.
Salomon said more than 30,000 people viewed the social media posts about the hunt that was inspired by the Be You sculpture designed by Chicago artist Michael Hoffman. When Paris Hilton uploaded an image of herself with the sculpture last August in downtown St. Charles, the Instagram post received 1.5 million views.
Because the rock hunt was so successful, Salomon is already thinking about the next one.
"We thought we did a pretty good job hiding the rocks but people still found them really fast," she said. "We'll probably figure something out to make it a little different next time."