Inspired by the idea of getting Milwaukee residents out of their houses and connecting with each other, Radio Milwaukee planned a special celebration for the month of August. After months of quarantine, social distancing and isolation we planned a county-wide scavenger hunt to get listeners back into the community and exploring our great city. For two years running, we have hosted “Explore Milwaukee with 88Nine” which is free and open to the public, all you need to participate is a cell phone.
We hand-crafted 250 missions for participants to engage with – from photo challenges to GPS locations to video challenges and short-answer questions. The ultimate goal of the scavenger hunt is to highlight local businesses (especially those hit hardest by the pandemic), celebrate Milwaukee landmarks and get people out and about, connecting with each other again.
The county-wide scavenger hunt culminates in a special wrap event put on in collaboration with one of our partners. In 2021 we co-hosted a gathering as part of Washington Park Wednesdays with the Milwaukee County Parks system. The event was hosted by Radio Milwaukee’s Music Education Coordinator Britney Freeman-Farr, known in the music community as B~Free. It featured a special live performance from students of Grace Weber’s Music Lab, a free after-school music education program. In 2022 we are planning a wrap event at a local brewery that will feature local beer, an awards ceremony with custom-made trophies by a local artist and music DJ’d by our Music Director Erin Wolf.