Missing Mardi Gras? Go on a hunt

With Mardi Gras parades or balls canceled locally due to the COVID-19 pandemic, area residents must find creative options to celebrate the holiday safely.
The Cajun Coast Visitor’s & Convention Bureau has one option to help fill that void with the Cajun Coast Mardi Gras Scavenger Hunt.
The event will be offered through the scavenger hunt platform Goose Chase. Participants will need to download the app to participate.
The local scavenger hunt will begin Friday at 9 a.m. and continue until Feb. 16 at 10 p.m.
“When we knew that Mardi Gras was going to be canceled, we wanted to do something, but we didn’t know what that would be,” Cajun Coast Visitors & Convention Bureau Executive Director Carrie Stansbury said. “We had heard about this scavenger hunt. Someone had told me that they really enjoyed it.”
After researching the idea, the visitor’s bureau elected to partake in the event, and they came up with the missions.
“It’s a scavenger hunt, but it’s more like missions,” Stansbury said. “It’s little projects, and if you think about Mardi Gras, it’s all the little things that we’ve included. We want you to come to our community and do it, but you don’t have to be from this area to enjoy and to complete the missions.”
The event’s goal is to get family and friends to celebrate the Mardi Gras season while doing so in accordance with COVID-19 protocol.
The hunt includes 80-plus missions. Some can be done quickly while others take more time. No more than a group of eight can participate, with one person being at least age 18 to download the app. From there, participants will download the Cajun Coast Mardi Gras Scavenger Hunt and begin.
After missions are completed, participants record them with a picture or video. Points are earned for each mission.
“You may not be able to get them all in that time frame, but what we’re hoping is that everybody that participates has a good time doing the missions,” Stansbury said.
The top teams in the event will receive gift cards and cash valued at $900 (first place), $400 (second place) and $275 (third place).
For more information about the event, visit www.cajuncoast.com/mardigrashunt or call the visitor’s bureau at 985-380-8224.
In addition to the scavenger hunt, there are other options that locals can participate in during the carnival season.
In an Ochsner Health System blog, Dr. Sarena Teng with Ochsner Hospital for Children in New Orleans wrote about ways to safely celebrate. Those include having a virtual costume party and creating shoe box floats. To make things competitive, contests can be held for both.
Teng also included a list of Mardi Gras celebrations that will be held online and on television. NOLA.com will hold Mardi Gras For All Y’all Feb. 12-14 from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. each day. The event will be available at Nola.com’s Facebook page and its YouTube channel as well as at www.nola.com and the advocate.com.
Also, New Orleans television station WYES will be showing Mardi Gras programs.