Across Padanaram, businesses hid treasures, including mice with lavender bows on their tails, a picture of the Magic Kingdom Castle and a whale, for kids to find in the first Padanaram Children’s Scavenger Hunt.

The Dartmouth Cultural Center hosted the hunt with assistance from the Padanaram Business Community.

Beverly Pusateri, the event’s organizer, decided to hold the hunt from Aug. 22 to Aug. 27, which was the last week before school started.

“There’s that week that parents have between the camps and school starting so the kids don’t have anything to do,” said Pusateri. “So the hunt was to get those kids involved, to get them in here.”

Ten Padanaram storekeepers participated and children had 12 things they needed to find.

It took kids about an hour and a half to complete the hunt, Pusateri said.

Pusateri contacted the Padanaram Businesses Community and asked if anyone would like to participate in the hunt, and 10 of them expressed interest, including Farm & Coast, Padanaram Outfitters and the Village Sweet Shop.

“Some of the people just had something outside and some wanted them to come indoors,” Pusateri said. “It was up to the shopkeeper because I didn’t want to be invasive.”

Some of the items kids had to find included a butterfly wings painting, a stone dog and a yellow rubber duck.

One of the “hardest ones to figure out” was a picture of Cinderella’s castle, Pusateri said.

When the kids found an item they had to take a picture of it, and once they found all 12, they took them back to the Dartmouth Cultural Center for a prize.

The prize consisted of a sketch pad, coloring pencils, watercolor paints with brushes, a mixing tray and a container of modeling clay.

The Dartmouth Cultural Center hoped to have 20 kids participate in the scavenger hunt, but over 50 participation forms were requested and over 35 prize packets were awarded.

“I had to run home after the first day and reorder from Amazon,” Pusateri said. “But that’s a good thing.”

The Dartmouth Cultural Center plans to hold the scavenger hunt again next year.

“It all worked out well,” Pusateri said. “Everyone had a great time.”