A month ago I had a parent contact me to ask if I would put together a treausre hunt for her 9 year-old’s birthday party. “YES!” I exclaimed.
I do at least one treasure hunt or scavenger hunt every week of summer camp. The campers love them. Let me repeat that - The campers LOVE!!!! them. Fortunately, I really enjoy putting them together and running them as well. So when I was asked to put together a hunt for a birthday boy who loves the book series The 39 Clues, and I was going to get paid for it…well, how could I refuse?
Organizing the Hunt
The first thing I had to do was ask mom some questions:
- How many kids will there be? (14)
- Where do you want the hunt to take place? (downtown)
- How long do you want it to go? (1 hour)
- How difficult would you like it? (easy enough for 9 year olds but difficult enough for them to have to work out each clue)
- Do you want a race between teams or one team to work together? (there will be two teams)
- Will their be an adult chaperone with each team? (yes)
Since this was my first birthday treasure hunt I wanted to give mom and dad some options, so I quickly designed some hunts that ranged from finding hidden animals and treasure (more of a scavenger hunt) to a mix of solvable clues that led from one spot to another. The parents liked the idea of the clues and that’s when mom told me about her son’s interest in The 39 Clues series.
I went to the library and checked out the first book of the series. After reading it I realized two things, 1. I wanted to design a story around the hunt and 2. I had no interest in continuing to read that series.
The Hunt
On the day of the hunt I went around town and taped up envelopes with clues in different spots. One envelope was for the red team and one for the blue team. Thankfully nobody bothered the clues during the hunt (this was a big concern for me). Then I went to the pizza place where they were having the party and I gave the cashier two bags and one envelope to be given to mom. The envelope contained a letter to be read first. It was a letter from me to the treasure hunters (kids) where I told them about the passing of my dear old aunt Regina and how, in her will, she left me a clue that was supposed to lead me to a treasure. The problem was that the clue led to another clue, and then another. I knew I was close to the treasure but I had to attend to other matters so I needed their help. The letter went on to tell them that in each of the bags was a clue and a bandanna (one red and one blue). While the clues were different they both would eventually lead to the same place.
I decided to make the clues and routes different so that the teams couldn’t just follow each other. The clues ranged from puzzles to word searches, from finding a person on Main St. to riddles that led them to a new location. The teams walked or ran all over town and eventually ended up at the library where two letters were hidden in a book. The teams had to bring the letter to me at a specified location where they found a treasure chest full of toys. Each child was allowed to choose one gift and then come in the building to have cake and ice cream.
By the way, the final envelopes contained letters from aunt Regina. One was to me that said she loved me and I had inherited everything. This envelope had a note telling the first team to take it and to leave the other envelope. The other letter told would-be-theives that they would never find the treasure. This was the second envelope.
Using Cell Phones
One of the things I did was to give each chaperone my cell number in case they had any troubles. Good thing I did. At one of the stops I had forgotten to tell them exactly where to look for the clue so I texted them the location. Another clue involved a word scramble. Somehow a few of the letters fell out of the envelope so the kids could not solve the clue. The chaperone texted me and I was able to give them the next location.
I also used the phones camera capabilities. Each group had to find a stranger that was willing to have their picture taken while sucking their thumb (silly I know, but the kids thought it was hilarious). Once they got the picture the chaperone had to send it to my phone to receive the next clue via text message.
All in all the kids had a great time and the chaperones were worn out from having to keep up with the teams. You may be offering birthday parties out of your community center but are you offering treasure hunts? If not, you should condsider it. It’s fun to plan and to run and it’s great for word of mouth advertising.
Other Hunt Ideas
Other treasure hunt events you might consider are:
- A Family Treasure Hunt Challenge
- Amazing Race Event
- Limo Treasure Hunt
- Teen Treasure Hunt Challenge
- Geocaching Event that takes aprticpants from one park to the next
- Father/Son Treasure Hunt Event
- Mother/Daughter Treasure Hunt Event
- Chamber of Commerce Treasuer Hunt where teams go from one business to another
- Camera Phone Treasure Hunts where teams have to complete tasks and get strangers to do things. Then they send them to your phone for their next clue or task. Make sure each team has a phone with picture or video capabilities.
