If you’re looking to spread the Christmas cheer this festive season, then this might be the perfect holiday activity for you.
Greater Shepparton City Council is in the process of launching its ‘Greater Shepparton, Greater Christmas’ campaign and is on the hunt for some friendly faces to help out as elves.
Council’s Partnerships and Marketing Co-ordinator Liz Connick is eager to roll out the campaign and said it would start with finding the right people.
“We want to recruit a community of elves just to bring some fun and cheer to our community,” Ms Connick said.
“Our elves will pop up and help people with their shopping, they might do some face painting, they’ll visit businesses and so forth.”
Elves will also go out to the smaller towns outside of Shepparton for different periods of the week to interact with those communities.
“We’ll be providing an elf uniform and training and each person who is successful in becoming a part of our elf community, will receive a gift based on the number of hours and days they are elf-ing for,” Ms Connick said.
The option is also open for community groups to get involved and in lieu of receiving gifts as payment, they can opt for a monetary donation to their club or organisation.
“If you have a group of people in a community group or organ-sation that would like to do some elf-ing hours, we’ll count up the hours that each individual in that club did and make a donation to that club.”
“It’s a great opportunity for young people if they need some experience on their resume, mums and dads who might like to go elf-ing with their younger kids or just anyone who’s eager to get involved with Christmas.”
“It’s open to all ages, from school age onwards.”
The council is also setting up a Christmas wonderland on the corner of High St and the Maude St Mall in Shepparton, which will act as a hub for elves to interact with the community, helping people find the perfect gift.
The hub will also offer gift wrapping, prize competitions plus an opportunity to take a selfie with an elfie and to dress up and take photos with friends.
This will be paired with a website that will showcase the unique gifts and products of Greater Shepparton businesses where people can make their own Christmas shopping list.
Elf recruitment closes on Wednesday, November 9. If you’re interested in applying, fill out the online form on the council’s website or contact Liz Connick on 5832 9852.