Great weather makes for a fine day finding Duck Tape sculptures in Avon

AVON — A warm, cloudless afternoon brought a steady stream of duct tape aficionados to Avon on Sunday as Duck Brand's citywide scavenger hunt continued. Following clues posted online by the Avon-based company, participants in the free event drove to various well-known spots around the city to locate sculptures fashioned with Duck Tape. Connie Palumbo, a Cleveland resident, drove to Avon "just to get out" after hearing about the scavenger hunt on social media. "There's no place else to go," she said after finding a cluster of green grapes made largely of duct tape outside Crushers Stadium. Duck Brands is hosting the scavenger hunt and offering prizes to participants who share their progress on Twitter or Instagram using unique hashtags found at each sculpture along with #sweepstakes and tagging @theduckbrand in their posts. The grand prize winner will take home a $1,000 gift card and assorted Duck Tape prints, colors and swag. Two first prize winners and five second prize winners will be awarded smaller prize packs. The sculptures follow the theme "City of Blooms" and will be up through Oct. 2. If Palumbo were to win a big supply of duct tape, she said she would make crafts out of it and find some use at the daycare she runs. Brooklyn Heights resident Christine O'Haire wasn't so sure what she would do with so much free tape, but she said her family enjoyed touring Avon during the day. Other scavenger hunters were much more familiar with the city. Members of the Hoffland family from Avon didn't have too much trouble deciphering the clues to figure out where the sculptures were located. "A couple were tough, but we figured it out," said dad Kevin Hoffland. Mom Deann Hoffland and kids Kyle, 8, and Riley, 5, joined him for photos in front of a Hollywood-sign-style Avon, Ohio duct tape sign on a hill outside Crushers Stadium. Deann Hoffman said they also heard about the event through social media. At another of the sculpture locations, outside Avon Middle School, participants took pictures in front of a jumbo-sized bee with spindly tape limbs atop a flower made of — you guessed it — Duck Tape. Avon residents Dean Ibsen and Pamela Boldman completed their checklist of sculptures at the Middle School. Ibsen said he became aware of the scavenger hunt a couple weeks ago after accidentally finding a sculpture near the Avon Aquatic Facility. "I walk there and I found it there, so I started from that," he said. Having found all of them now, he plans to enter the social media sweepstakes. If the couple finds themselves as winners of the gift cards and Duck Tape, they offered differing ideas of how they would use the tape. Ibsen initially suggested selling it online, but Boldman said building a house out of it may be fun. Maybe they could make another sculpture out of the tape, Ibsen added. The scavenger hunt comes as some consolation after the annual Avon Heritage Duck Tape Festival was canceled this year due to public health concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Contact Dylan Reynolds at (440) 329-7123 or dreynolds@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @drey1357.