Thame Town Council is providing a family fun ‘Safari’, a high street story-trail, to help spread joy, support the NHS and give families a safe reason to return to the high street.

Launching on Thursday 9 July 2020 families and households in Thame will be invited to search the streets for 10 cute and colourful MonsterHeroes. Using only smartphones, the Safari allows you to learn each of the MonsterHero’s name, story, and superpowers. Once all 10 MonsterHeroes are found, a free e-book, that tells the story of their first team-up, will be unlocked.  The Safari works by utilising contactless NFC technology and QR codes, without the need for players to download or sign up to anything, they simply need to tap or scan to play. The Safari aims to bring some sort of normality back to high streets and demonstrates an effective opportunity to entertain and excite shoppers. A clever way to help increase high street footfall while ensuring the safety of the public.

Over 100 BIDs and councils across the UK are taking part in the MonsterHero Safari project, which has been sponsored by Wild in Art, with the aim of raising over £100k for NHS Charities Together. In times of great stress, this project aims to provide the local community with a memorable high street experience that will bring a smile to the community of Thame.

Becky Reid, Market Town Coordinator at Thame Town Council, has been creating Lockdown Treasure Hunts over the past 8 week to encourage people to stay connected to the town centre whilst many of the businesses have been closed. She said ‘We are really excited to now be part of such a great national activity that takes people on an adventure through our town centre while supporting the NHS. We have some wonderful independent businesses in Thame who have all taken brilliant steps to ensure that customers have a safe shopping experience when they visit, so we hope that participants will take the time to explore the town further after completing their Monster Safari’.

Coordinating the national project is Martin Blackwell, former CEO of ATCM and the Charity Retail Association who said “When I heard about the concept it just resonated with me and I knew I had to support it. I loved the idea of heroes; the idea of a “safari on the high street”!  I just thought, if something fun like this can help make families feel good about going back out onto the high street and raise money for such a worthy cause then let’s go for it.”

To learn more about the story-trail please go to www.monsterherosafari.com