April Patry, Director of the Southampton Art Gallery, left, and Heather Hyde of the Southampton BIA, at the BIA office, located in the Southampton Arts Centre on High Street, where completed Flag Quest cards are to be dropped off.

Hub Staff

There are flags aplenty adorning Southampton businesses this week, all part of Southampton Business Improvement Area's (BIA) Flag Quest and the run up to this weekend's Marine Heritage Festival. The sixth annual event kicks off Friday evening, July 22 at the Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre with the Festival Launch Party.

Darlene McConnachie stands with the Flag Quest lighthouse, which she made from a washing machine box donated by Square Deal Neil's in Southampton.

Flag Quest is a contest with three levels, said Southampton BIA's Heather Hyde. “It's basically like a scavenger hunt through the town,” she explained. There are 41 businesses involved, each with a series of flags in their stores with each flag representing a letter. The letters then form a word. Using a player card that can be picked up at various businesses throughout Southampton, participants can visit the businesses and write down the corresponding word on the player card.

The three levels of the contest are the Admiral's Quest, which involves visiting and writing down the words at 29 different destinations; the S.S. Trolley Quest, which visits 12 destinations and a special quest for children 12 and under, the Lieutenant Quest which will visit five destinations.

The Admiral's Quest offers three $500 grand prizes of local merchandise with the S.S. Trolley Quest offering a $200 merchandise prize. The Lieutenant Quest offers a child friendly prize valued at $150.

Completed cards can be dropped into the official Flag Quest Lighthouse at the Southampton BIA office, located in the Southampton Arts Centre, Town Hall. It's open seven days a week and the entrance is on High Street.

Art School Director at the Southampton Art School and member of a former Southampton business association, Darlene McConnachie said she created the Flag Quest in conjunction with the 2015 Marine Heritage Festival after the Festival approached the association. “Marine Heritage asked us to have something going on downtown.” McConnochie said she had been shown the Maritime flags and learned that each one represented a different letter, which gave her the idea for the contest.

Flag Quest is underway and will run through the Marine Heritage Festival until 4 p.m. on Sunday, July 24 with prizes drawn on July 25.

A sample of the flags adorning Southampton streets and businesses as part of Flag Quest, in conjunction with the Marine Heritage Festival.