Seen any snowflakes around Sebastopol recently? If not, look a little closer.
Elizabeth Smith, the woman who created the Peacetown Family Village, just launched a new holiday game for families and children in Sebastopol: a snowflake hunt.
“Christmas was coming, and I didn’t see anything going on in our community for our families here in Sebastopol,” Smith said.
At first she thought of doing holiday gift bag for children under the auspices of the Peacetown Family Village, but decided that wasn’t quite enough.
“Families need something a little bit more — a way to create memories with their families given that this year looks a lot different from previous holidays,” she said. “So I thought, well, let’s do a snowflake hunt.”
Smith chose 12 different locations around town and posted a snowflake with a letter on it at each location.
‘After they complete the snowflake hunt, the kids now have a series of letters that spell out a sentence,” she said.
How do you know where to find the snowflakes?
Families start by picking up a “Peace Bag” at one of three locations — the Chamber of Commerce, Toyworks or Silk Moon.
Inside the bag are a list of clues as to where the snowflakes are located, some holiday goodies and a craft project to create a peace sign ornament. When children complete their ornament, they can hang it up on a special peace tree in the window of People’s Music.
Event sponsors include Sebastopol Downtown Association, Peacetown Family Village, Sebastopol Chamber of Commerce, The Toyworks and Project Whole Child. Smith said they also received support and donations from 20 other organizations.
Smith kicked off the snowflake hunt by distributing bags to kids at Castle daycare and the Sebastopol Center for the Arts’ distance learning program.
She said the snowflake hunt is scheduled to run from Dec. 14 to Dec. 21 or until they run out of bags.
Smith is living proof of the saying that “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
“It truly brings me joy,” she said, about creating community events for children. “It happens to be something that I’m really good at doing so I enjoy doing it.”
