The hunt is on for shoppers on Main Street, as they search for hidden Easter eggs in 29 downtown businesses.

Until April 3, participating businesses will have an egg hidden amongst their wares. Finding the hidden egg inside 10 different shops makes participants eligible for a prize drawing at the end of the hunt.

Finding the eggs may sound easy, but Moore said some of the shops on Main Street have thousands of items on display. She knows where the egg is hidden at one local shop, and she appreciates the cleverness of the hiding spot.

“I probably could have searched for 15 minutes before I found it,” Moore said.

Each participant is issued a game card.

“You can get a card in each one of these 29 businesses,” Moore said.

Once participants find an egg, the shop’s owner or manager will initial or stamp the game card. And after participants find 10 eggs, they can turn in their game cards at any participating business or at the Main Street Cultural District office and are eligible for a prize drawing.

“Each [Cultural District] investor participating is also donating a gift,” Moore said. “At the end there will be drawings to draw all the prizes.”

Prizes range from gift cards to an Easter basket and a massage.

And though the promotion only just started, Moore said completed game cards have already been turned in.

Marg Junkhan, owner of Cook’s Emporium, 313 Main St., said the store has seen mostly mothers with children searching for eggs, but that more students may be coming on the hunt once they return from Spring Break.

“Our experience so far is that everybody thinks it’s kind of a fun event,” Junkhan said. “The kids like the idea.”

It’s also a great way to pull in new customers.

“We think it’s a good way to get people downtown,” Junkhan said.

She added that visitors to her shop often exclaim that they had no idea that Ames had a local cookware shop.

“A lot of people are surprised,” Junkhan said. “I’m sure that other businesses are saying the same thing.”

And that — introducing customers to the wide variety of shops in the Main Street Cultural District — is exactly the goal of the Easter Egg Hunt, Moore said.

“This is a good opportunity to go in a lot of different types of stores,” Moore said. “We want people to find a business they’ve never been in and find the perfect thing that they need to take home.”