- Inspired by history and theme parks, the City of Menasha has begun its special button hunt for collectors interested in celebrating the city's 150th anniversary.
- Each participating business will only offer 150 unique buttons, which can be added to a lanyard that you can purchase at designated locations, listed in the links below.
- This is only the first of many special celebrations coming in 2024 to celebrate Menasha.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
See this lanyard? It's for collecting buttons all around the neighborhood.
I'm your Menasha Neighborhood Reporter Darby McCarthy meeting some of the minds behind this fun way to kick off some very special celebrations going on this year.
“We’re talking about the button hunt! And Menasha’s ses-qui-cen-tennial! Say that three times fast.”
Sesquicentennial: It means 150 years, and that's how old the City of Menasha will be on March 5.
It's a word that Club Liquor co-owner Anastasia Horan has been practicing.
“We've had months to practice because we started planning this way back in the summer.”
Businesses all around Menasha will be offering buttons and lanyards, but they will come in limited supply. The goal is that there will only be 150 copies of the unique buttons offered per participating stop.
It's partly inspired by historical buttons from the city's centennial. And it's partly inspired by Disney.
“A lot of people have their Disney lanyards and they collect the buttons. And we thought ‘how fun that would be, to do that here in Menasha?’”
Anastasia has been helping some of her fellow business owners design theirs.
“We really are trying to bring the history into everything and really have some fun with it.”
Sesquicentennial Committee Chair Sarah Bauer also met up with us to show off some of the participating local stops.
“Let’s take a little walk down historic downtown Menasha.”
Just in one short walk downtown, we found three participating businesses.
“Here we are at Elysa Kate and Company.”
She says the project is the brainchild of Jacy Park, who I saw while I was out learning more!
“And let's head up to the Sweet Lair. See what Bri has going today,” Bauer said, leading the way.
When we arrived, she checked in with Sweet Lair owner Bri Lutz.
“So this just started yesterday. Have you given out many buttons so far?” Bauer asked.
"So, we had 150, and now we're maybe halfway through I would say?” Lutz answered, shaking a small bag of buttons. “The bag was pretty full.”
While some businesses are already offering buttons, more will be joining soon.
More information and participating locations are available on the Sesquicentennial website here.
