Creativity is key
“My grandson helped us with item #5—a belt buckle with a truck on it,” says Hicks. “He actually cut a matchbox car in half and glued it onto a belt. It looks great. That’s the spirit of our team, nothing deterred us; we were going to find it.”

“We had a local bank helping us search for a dollar bill with the numbers 007 in consecutive order on it (item #47),” says Pac Rat team member Gordon Ward. “We never did find one, but the bank did their best to help us look.”

“The hunt was really about creativity and ingenuity,” says Winters. “Many of us went to the Internet to find some of the items, particularly #40—the satellite photo of Riderwood and #34—the title of a Washington Post headline from 1943.”

As the scavenger hunt progressed, community members not on a participating team found themselves caught up in the thrill of the chase. And even competing teams shared items they found with each other.

“So many people got involved,” says Doyle. “Everyone was very helpful and donated what they had. It was the main topic at dinner for two weeks.”

Winters agrees. “The best part of the hunt was all the new friends we made,” he says. “We talked about it every night at dinner. It was a lot of fun.”

With participants helping each other and putting their creative minds to the test, the race to the finish was a close one.

Sprint to the finish
“We almost didn’t finish in first place,” says Hicks. “I was out all that day, and when I returned home I was tired. I considered waiting until the next morning to turn in our items. But the thought occurred to me—as soon as I don’t do it somebody else will.”

And she was right. Second place finishers, Earl and Claudia Davis, Team Scroungers, turned in their items only two hours later. On their tails were third place finishers Doyle and Watkins of the Devious Duo, who submitted their items early the next morning.

Time to celebrate
After completion of the hunt, all finishers came together to share their scavenger hunt stories and to display the items they found with the rest of the community. Borders gift cards and pen lights (because great detectives work in both day and night) were awarded to the top finishers. Each participant received a certificate of completion.

Based on the fun and spirit of camaraderie the hunt inspired, plans are already underway for next year.

“It was a lot of fun, and we worked so well together,” says Mahoney. “I  absolutely plan to do it again next year.”