All Jefferson area youth are invited to a community-wide activity with the Jefferson Public Library.

Youth Services Librarian Bailey Mount says all kindergarteners through 12th graders can participate in the “Your Princess is in Another Castle” Scavenger Hunt, which is tailored from the Summer Reading Program “Level Up at Your Library” and the idea stemmed from when her staff was decorating the Youth Department with characters from the original Super Mario Brothers 1980s video game.

“So as I was putting up our little 8-bit Toad (the mushroom) and our little Princess Peach, I went ‘Oh wait. Why am I putting Peach on the board because she is never at the castle when Mario gets there, ever!  Toad always goes, ‘I’m sorry Mario but our princess is in another castle.’ So that gave us an idea.”

Mount states that eight different Princess Peach characters have been hidden across the community, including her precursor versions and some of her close friends for a total of ten items. She encourages participants to start at the library.

“We’re going to have the Peach that you are looking for next to her clue. So it’s going to be a combination of reading the clue and thinking about what the words mean as a hint to the location. And then also looking at the Peach that the clue is matched to and going, ‘Oh, what place in town would it make sense for Mario Cart Peach to be? What place in town would it make sense for 8-bit Peach to be.’”  

Mount says the scavenger hunt is going on now through July 31st. She asks participants that once they find the characters, to take pictures of them as evidence so they can be entered into drawings for prizes. This is a free activity and a bike or a vehicle is required to get to some of the locations. Anyone with questions can contact the Youth Department at 515-386-2835.