MOUNT VERNON – On first glance, everything appeared as it usually does along Main Street in Mount Vernon Friday morning.
The weather of Ohio spring brought a mix of rain, snow and sunshine as shoppers moved through bookstores, coffee shops and boutiques.
But observant passersby may have noticed some deviations from the norm — a new flavor, booger blast, advertised outside Whit’s Frozen Custard, and signage promoting a novel texting service being offered by Paragraphs Bookstore.
Science Play-Space Initiative, a non-profit play space with a focus on science and technology, hosted an April Fools-inspired workshop for children to trick the community, SPI executive director Stephanie Calondis Geiger told Knox Pages.
“With an eye toward April Fool’s Day we imagined that workshop inspiring and equipping them to pull off pranks and illusions at home,” Geiger told Knox Pages. “I thought it would also be fun for them to just mess with the whole town while they are (at) it.”
Five third through fifth graders came up with the pranks during SPI’s “Sabotage Science” spring break camp March 29, led by SPI program manager Bonnie Schutte. The camp included discussions of both optical illusions and pranks.
Sisters Olivia and Natalie Buena participated in the camp and woke up early Friday to execute the pranks. Olivia, 11, and Natalie, 9, said they also pulled off pranks at home using what they learned at camp, such as an envelope snake head prank on their brother and putting slime in their parents’ shower.
For the pranks in the larger Mount Vernon community, Schutte enlisted the help of two businesses nearby SPI, Whit’s and Paragraphs.
For Whit’s, the children considered other flavor offerings — diaper delight, spoiled milk and cherries — before settling on booger blast, the Buena sisters said.
For Paragraphs, the prank involved combining books and texting. A sign children placed outside the store around 9:30 a.m. read “get a new novel texted to your phone each day” and enlisted help, “now hiring fast texters.”
The two businesses left the signage up briefly Friday morning and did not receive any inquiries from the larger community about them, which Schutte said was part of SPI’s plan to poke fun, but not impact business sales.
The owner of Paragraphs, Lois Hanson, said she forgot she agreed to allow a prank and ended up being surprised herself when walking outside to find the sign.
She described her reaction using a phrase from a speech in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet — “hoist with his own petard,” meaning someone who has fallen for their own schemes.
The owner of Whit’s in Mount Vernon, Renee Rein, confirmed with her staff after they replaced the signage Friday morning that Whit’s did not receive any calls about the “booger blast” flavor, joking it was probably best to keep the health hazard flavor off the radar of local health entities.
Both Hanson and Rein said they enjoyed watching the children pull the trickery.
“It’s just fun to watch the kids,” Rein said.
Hanson added, “I think SPI is one of the best additions to downtown that has happened.”
SPI began in February 2011 and has moved to various locations over the years. Today, it is housed in the Wright Center, the former Buckeye Candy and Tobacco Building, along with the Kenyon College Office of Community Engagement.
In addition to mini camps, such as the one offered in March, SPI has themed summer camps for children of various ages.
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