What are the top 100 things to do in Hanover?
The Utz Factory, the Hanover Fire Museum, Codorus State Park: For locals and out-of-towners alike, the Hanover area is populated with places to go and things to see, according to Jim Simpson.
"I think Hanover has a lot to offer visitors and residents," said Simpson, 65, president of Hanover Shoe Farms.
That's why Simpson proposed the Hanover Area Chamber of Commerce, Main Street Hanover and other local entities work together to craft the ultimate list of the town's must-sees and must-dos.
Efforts are underway to compile a Hanover bucket list, enumerating the top 100 things to do in town. Simpson and other Hanoverians hope to work on the list throughout 2016 before publishing it, possibly in book form.
The idea was inspired by a book Simpson read about Ocean City, Maryland.
Simpson, a resident of Hanover for more than 20 years, has a vacation home in the beach town and saw a book titled "The Ocean City Bucket List: 100 Ways to Have a Real Ocean City Experience." After reading it, he thought a similar compilation would be appropriate for Hanover.
"I don't think 100 is going to be the right number," he said. "I suspect there should be more places to see."
Justine Kilkelly, manager of Main Street Hanover, learned of the idea from former borough councilman John Gerken. She thought it would be a great project to collaborate on with the chamber of commerce.
"We thought between our two organizations we could at least come up with a base list or just kind of brainstorm to see if we could come up with 100 things to do, and, of course, we did," Kilkelly said.
Hanover is ideal for such a list because it has many things to offer people looking for a vacation spot, or people looking for a place to call home, Kilkelly said.
"We're in kind of that perfect spot in between Gettysburg, York City and Baltimore, so it's kind of that nice day trip for a lot of people, and we're not that far from Philly either," she said. "(The list) would be a fun way to highlight some of the cool and quirky things we have going on."
Many of the ideas the two groups have brainstormed are activity-related.
"One of the ones we thought of was eat three Famous hot dogs with everything in one sitting," Kilkelly said.
Katy King, marketing and public relations director at the chamber, said many ideas relate to food. She hopes to include Hanover's "hidden gems."
"You know, the shoe farms, you can go see a foal born in the spring," she said. "That's a great time to go visit. So many people who live here have never done that. A lot of them don't even know maybe that the shoe farms are out there."
The annual Halloween parade is another experience slated for the list.
"We tried to put a fun twist on them, too," King said. "Not just go to the Halloween parade. Line up at 5 o'clock the day before to put out your lawn chair for the Halloween parade. There are so many little things you take for granted that make the community unique."
Kilkelly said at some point the bucket list will be opened up to the public for input and feedback, likely through Facebook.
Other components of the bucket list may include coupons from businesses, factoids about Hanover and web-based activities, such as posting photos of bucket list experiences on Instagram with a designated hashtag.
Simpson has offered to donate the funds to cover the copyright fee to use the bucket list title.
His son, Mike Simpson, 36, thinks the list should reflect not only the interesting businesses in town, but also less conventional experiences.
"I think it should be a combination of going to places like Hanover Shoes Farms, Snyder's and Utz, and also, if you look at the Ocean City bucket list, it has things that have nothing to do with businesses, like 'get a french fry stolen from you by a seagull,' things that you wouldn't be able to get a coupon for, or get advertising money from," he said. "I think it would be nice to have a mix of maybe silly things to do and also tours to take."
"I think it's a great thing for the residents to learn more about the community." he said, "Maybe we could pull some visitors from Gettysburg over here for a day trip."