Want to solve the mystery of the 2020 lobster season?

Traps and Trawls escape rooms being held in Barrington and Port Maitland are fundraisers for local organizations

Registration is now open for the Traps and Trawls escape rooms being held in Barrington, Shelburne County, and Port Maitland, Yarmouth County, as fundraisers for local organizations.

Hosted by Mile East Productions, the escape room has a lobster fishing theme to go along with the Nova Scotia Lobster Crawl, which runs throughout the month of February.

“We were approached in fall of 2019 about creating an escape room as a fundraiser for two organizations: the Nova Scotia Marathon, through Barrington Recreation, and Sainte Anne University for a group of students fundraising for a humanitarian trip to Ecuador,” said Candice Phibbs. “We are always glad to be able to help out fundraising efforts, and since the two groups are on either side of Yarmouth, we were able to create one room and host it in two locations.”

An escape room is a serious of puzzles, clues and critical thinking challenges centred around a theme, explained Phibbs.

“The goal is to solve all of the puzzles in a set amount of time (60 minutes) in order to find a key/object/code to ‘escape the room’.”

Phibbs said escape rooms have grown in popularity as a team activity.

“They are extremely popular with groups of friends, families and as team-building with work places,” she said. “They’re great for a wide range of ages, though we typically recommend 12 plus. A common misconception is that escape rooms are scary. Escape rooms are not scary unless you seek out a horror-themed room and you are never truly locked in a room due to fire regulations.”

The prize for escaping the room is bragging rights, said Phibbs.

“We do track times for all teams and successful teams usually monitor our Facebook page to watch if anyone breaks their record.”

The Traps and Trawls escape rooms are being held at the Barrington Recreation Centre on Jan. 31 through to Feb. 2 and at the Port Maitland elementary school March 27 to 29. Both venues have 17 time slots available.

The escape room has a recommended group size of six to eight participants. The cost is $15 per person. Registration is by phone at 902-307-2250.