SASKATOON -- When Paul Macalino went for a walk during a warmer day this winter, he wondered why more people weren’t doing the same, that’s when he got the idea to hide a spare coffee machine he had in his car.
“I happened to have a Keurig machine in my trunk and I was like ‘you know what? I’m going to try and hide this in Broadway,'” Macalino said.
He posted a video to Tik-Tok, teasing the location and enticing his viewers to get outside to look for it.
The idea took off from there, and Macalino said that his scavenger hunt videos have brought him almost 150,000 views so far.
“I never thought of it as anything, I just was trying to get people to be active, get out of their house, it's nice outside today,” Macalino told CTV.
“It did fairly well, and I was really surprised when it did, and I was like ‘oh, its still going? I’m going to do anther one.’”
The generosity doesn’t start and stop with Macalino however, he said that the person to find the Keurig from his first video decided to continue with the spirit of giving.
“When he pulled up and grabbed it, there was a family behind him that just got there. This kid gave it to the family who came after because they said they needed it more.” Macalino said.
He has now switched to hiding multiple gift bags in his latest videos, containing items such as coffee, travel mugs and gift cards he said viewers have been reaching out to him to donate.
Macalino spends a lot of his time on Tik-Tok promoting Saskatoon small businesses, and he said that the views he’s getting on his scavenger hunt videos are helping to drive people towards the businesses he highlights.
With all the positivity surrounding his videos Macalino said he isn’t planning on stopping anytime soon, adding he might be coming out with another scavenger hunt video sometime before Christmas.
