Digital scavenger hunt showcases Wilmot Township
NEW HAMBURG — An online scavenger hunt adventure with a Wilmot Township theme was created by a New Hamburg family to offer people a fun distraction while sharing their community.
“I would just want people to have a nice half-an-hour escape,” said Matt Teskey. “It’s basically a scavenger hunt around our town.”
The digital treasure hunt includes photos, clues and puzzles that need to be answered correctly to open the lock and move on.
The idea was inspired by a similar one with a Harry Potter theme that the family of Disney fans did together.
“I thought I could build something like that, but what would be my theme,” Teskey said.
Teskey, his wife Laura and children Rylan and Grayson then set to work to create a Wilmot Township-themed scavenger hunt called Wonder of the Water Wheel after New Hamburg’s landmark. Everyone pitched in, brainstorming ideas, taking pictures, writing the commentary and testing early versions.
“Definitely a team effort,” Teskey said. Since the launch on Monday, a few hundred have finished the hunt and almost 100 left comments they read every night.
“We’re curious to see how far it goes,” Teskey said.
He’s hoping it might spur people to visit the township or make their own themed scavenger hunt. For the Teskeys, it was a creative outlet they could enjoy doing together, working on it here and there over a week or two.
Wilmot Township Coun. Angie Hallman eagerly tried it out with her family.
“We did the girls versus boys in our house,” Hallman said. “It was really fun.”
Team Toilet Paper Queens (the girls) won by completing the hunt in 23 minutes, followed by the boys at 28.
Hallman said her family enjoys escape rooms and was excited to have a way to do that virtually when recreational activities are shut down during the pandemic.
Plus it highlighted places they were familiar with, which she said “added a fun element to this game.”
Although she said anyone in Waterloo Region and beyond can enjoy the treasure hunt.
“It gets people to understand our neck of the region,” Hallman said.
The Teskey family reached out to Hallman to test drive it, then asked if she could connect them with township staff to post the game on its website.
“Township staff were excited to work with them,” Hallman said.