Chick-tacular

Thirty women waded through the rain down Manitou Avenue Friday like ducklings with umbrellas, their shop-to-shop migration the beginning of what they hope will become a frequent retail ritual.

The inaugural Manitou Springs Chick Crawl wended its way from D'Vine Wine to Black Cat Books in a trail of food, drink, swag and good old-fashioned face-to-face customer service.

The event was the brainchild of Sara Keller, a longtime volunteer for the Taste of Manitou. Having seen and heard of organized pub crawls in other cities, Keller saw Manitou as a natural fit, because "we're so pedestrian-friendly, and we have a lot of great shops."

When local merchants took to the idea, the ladies-only crawl was born. Soon it had ballooned past its original cap of 20, eventually filling a roster of 30 chicks and leaving at least a dozen more on a wait list.

Kitty Clemens, the city's director of economic development, saw the Chick Crawl as not just a blast, but a boost to the local economy.

"We gave all these merchants 30 new customers, and they're probably going to be pretty loyal," Clemens said.

"I think most businesses appreciated the exposure more than anything," said Roger Treweeke, owner of Rising Sun, a stop on the tour. "I had several say they had never been before."

Clemens originally planned to host the crawls once a quarter, but said chicks and merchants alike are aready pestering her to organize them more often than that.

CHICKIN' DANCE

Wanna recreate the Chick Crawl for yourself? Hit these spots, in this order:

• D'Vine Wine
• Twigs
• Salus
• Silver Sparrow Beads
• Crying Out Loud
• Pikes Peak Chocolate
• Rising Sun
• Safron
• Black Cat Books