Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?
On Saturday, she was in downtown Seymour trying to stay healthy along with Velma Dinkley, Indiana Jones and a family of Waldos for the Healthy Jackson County Spring Scavenger Hunt.
“It just sounded like a lot of fun, and it was a free event in downtown Seymour,” said Jessica Vogel, who was dressed as Carmen Sandiego, a character created in the mid-1980s known for traveling around the world and leaving clues for kids to find.
“We just thought it would be fun to dress like clue-hunting characters,” Vogel said of dressing up for the event.
The scavenger hunt was a first for the Healthy Jackson County initiative.
“We were thinking about it and realized it was probably about 2 miles from downtown Seymour to Gaiser Park, so I just thought, ‘What if we did a scavenger hunt between here and there?'” said Patty Tormoehlen, a member of the Healthy Jackson County board and an organizer for the event.
The idea was for groups of four people to complete tasks or stations. Along the way, they took photos and posted them to either the Healthy Jackson County Facebook page or the event page created for it.
The activities included taking pictures in storefront windows, running the bases at Gaiser Park’s baseball diamond, chasing a squirrel or a bird at the park, forming a human pyramid at the pocket park and recreating The Beatles’ famous “Abbey Road” album cover.
“We liked them all,” Vogel said of the activities.
“I liked running the bases,” said Brayden Clark, a member of another group that completed the activities Saturday.
“I liked getting out to see more of Seymour,” Tabitha Danson said.
The event drew 40 people. Members of the 10 teams found about the event through the Facebook page or by word of mouth.
Along with the participants, Tormoehlen said the support of local businesses and organizations made the event possible.
“It wasn’t too hard to organize, and we wouldn’t have been able to do it without the donations of prizes and sites for the searchers,” she said. “We got passes to gyms, massage sessions and several other great prizes.”
Downtown businesses donated an assortment of prizes awarded in different fun categories. Awards were given to the best costumes, best base running, best human pyramid, largest range from oldest to youngest member of the team and more.
Healthy Jackson County plans to do another scavenger hunt in the future.