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Community Corner

Scavenge the Slope at Seventh Heaven

For the third year, The Community Bookstore will organize its Scavenger Hunt at Seventh Heaven.

Sunday may be Father’s Day, but for Slope residents there’s at least one other reason to celebrate. 

For the last 35 years, the third Sunday in June has also been host to Seventh Heaven, the annual Slope street fair for which where hundreds of business, artists, musicians and more set up shop along Seventh Avenue from Flatbush to 18th Street.

From arts and crafts and musical performances in front of John Jay High School to the antique car display and loads of yummy things to snack on, Seventh Heaven has been a great success for the neighborhood and the Park Slope Chamber of Commerce, which that runs the event.

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“It’s a great outpouring of the neighborhood,” said Bob Kalb, the Chamber’s treasurer who has owned the Park Slope Copy Center on Seventh Avenue between Carroll and President streets since 1985. “On a nice day we get upwards of 10,000 people.”

This year, a somewhat recent addition to the festivities will make its third appearance at Seventh Heaven: the scavenger hunt hosted by the Community Bookstore.

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Walter Petryk, an aspiring actor who has worked at the store at 143 Seventh Avenue since he was 15, is the main brain behind the event. He said it all started with an Easter Egg hunt he put together for Easter in 2009.

It was a huge success, so the owner at the time told him to make a scavenger hunt for the whole avenue. After pitching it to the Chamber of Commerce, Petryk got to work—mostly by Googleing other scavenger hunts.

One particular hunt at the University of Chicago was his main inspiration. It included actors and all sorts of crazy clues.

“I tried to make mine similar to that with the actors having things that people have to complete per their request and other competitions and trying to familiarize clues with the area and all sorts of things like that,” said Petryk, 20.

For instance, in the first hunt, this year one clue will be to find someone dressed up as Waldo in the crowd—on a busy day, a task no easier than spotting the striped-shirt sporting fella in amongst the masses in the classic “Where’s Waldo?” books. There will be several actors in the hunt dressed up as part of the event. Last year, there was a person in a chicken costume, and another wearing zombie makeup.

 Past clues range from the simple (“A running shoe keychain from Slope Sports”) to the wacky (“A Banana Phone”).

This year’s hunt, which begins at 11 a.m., revolves around the theme of “Time Travel,” though Petryk is keeping mum about the clues until Sunday. Still, the hunt’s website lists ways for teams to earn some bonus points, including baking the arbiters treats, designing a T-shirt, making a silent film, or dressing up as a favorite person from history.

Businesses will also contribute prizes, which will be given out as teams return to the Chamber of Commerce booth between the bookstore and the Little Things Toy Store.

Some highlights include a $25 gift certificate to Tutta Pasta and a Robot Clock from Tarzian West. The bookstore will also give out ten $10 gift certificates.

Petryk said he expects over sixty teams, which is roughly what the turnout was the past two years.

Teams should expect a fun and funky hunt.

“Thing are definitely getting wackier,” said Petryk.

Register online for the Seventh Heaven Scavenger Hunt at www.sites.google.com/site/7thheavenscavhunt.

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