There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from.  ~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Rachel Berger-Gregg, Aaron Fish, Sarah Rosenbaum, Alaina Fisher 9/22/12

This past Saturday was the SpyRing Scavenger Hunt, hosted by Thrill of the Hunt in Latrobe Pennsylvania.  Not only were the proceeds donated to help rebuild Playland, but the event was to give the local children a fun activity through the reinforcement of scholastic subjects.

I am no stranger to working with munchkins on educational advancement, well really just Kyle.  Over the years I’ve helped to be an integral part of his learning process and I’ve helped to push him towards excellence.  Not to say he didn’t do a lot on his own, and let’s face it he’s a smart little man, but I’ve had to nudge him a time or two.

In addition to expecting good grades, I’ve also tried to reinforce the importance of community service.  Giving back to make a difference is a great and admirable quality.  Thinking of others and their well-being, especially if the recipients are children, is vital to oneself and our fellow neighbor. It’s a great feeling.  This type of volunteer involvement comes in all shapes and sizes, from money donations, to property or items, to giving time and even intellectual contributions. No matter how small or large the donation or how it came to be, it’s always appreciated and worth it.

The kids had a great time! SpyRing Scavenger Hunt presented by Thrill of the Hunt 9/22/12

My sister and I started the company Thrill of the Hunt based on this type thinking and behavior.  Please note we are a profit based business, not a not-for-profit, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take advantage of our situation and help out when the opportunity arises.  Also being apart of something potentially bigger, from its infancy stages is exciting.  Not only that, but also making the most of it and doing the best job or task given at hand.  Being apart of the something to help make a difference all while being apart of a new business, it’s a win, win.

Now, let me discuss the Thrill of the Hunt Team.  They were stellar!  I mean, a great group of kids!  Building the company on these values of having fun and community involvement are all qualities exemplified naturally by my team.  They truly care for children and the support of family.  I am excited to have them on board and look for good things to come from each of these young adults.  They were not only very attentive to the kids during the event, but they were very helpful and supportive.  This is my sincerest shout out to Alaina Fisher, Rachel Berger-Gregg, Aaron Fish, and Sarah Rosenbaum.  What a great group, whom I want to employ moving forward with all my scavenger hunt events!  You know, I also want to help them out however I can, either for networking, work experience, as a reference or just to help them out with a job.  They are all intelligent, good, honest kids.

Lovely day for a SpyRing Scavenger Hunt – presented by Thrill of the Hunt 9/22/12

Since Kyle couldn’t attend the event, due to his hunter’s safety class, he managed to call and check in.  He wanted to know how things were going at the time.  It’s funny talking to him makes me feel like I need to justify my actions, like he was my boss.  Kyle always seems to step into businessman mode, asking ‘How much money was made?’, ‘How many kids showed up?’, ‘Was everyone having fun?’.  My Kyle, there’s the reason we made him the consultant.  I will give him credit, no matter how pre-occupied or busy he is, he can still separate himself and go into business mode.

Success can be defined in a number of ways.  The SpyRing Scavenger Hunt was a success in terms of going through the process of putting it together and setting up the event.  That in and of itself, is a big task and knowing what to do the next time is invaluable.  Also getting the feedback from parents and the children who participated is extremely important to me.  With respect to the parents I really want to know if these events are favorable with them, if they agree with the layout and the focus of the scavenger hunts, to reinforce education and to get the kids out and moving around.  During the event, I was able to hear what the youngsters had to say about the challenges, and the game in general.  I went through the typical questions, ‘Are the questions too easy, too hard?’, ‘Was the game too short or too long?’, ‘Was it more fun to go through the game individually or as a team?’ and the list went on.  I made my notes and I’m ready for the next scavenger hunt, making it even better and exciting.

Rachel Berger-Gregg, me, Alaina Fisher, Sarah Rosenbaum, Aaron Fish, Nicole Piper… Thrill of the Hunt 9/22/12

As the day unfolded we were able to brainstorm with parents.  At this time, we tried to think of the next big event,  Halloween of course.  Nicole and I decided to look into this theme for the next scavenger hunt event.  So again please check back for this event and get your kids involved.  I am always open to suggestions and ideas.  After all, I want the kids to benefit.

www.ThrillScavengerHunt.com

Scavenger Hunt – It’s the Thrill of the Hunt!

About a year ago, right before Breaking Dawn part 1 was to be released in theaters, I thought it might be fun to participate in a Twilight themed scavenger hunt.  I did what most of us do,  I headed straight for Google to get my answer, without success.  I found there were no such scavenger hunts offered.  Really?  At least there wasn’t anything around my area.  Then I thought, ‘Wouldn’t that be so much fun to have a Twilight themed scavenger hunt for fans?’  So, what do I do when I have a great idea?  I called my sister of course.  Dumping all my thoughts into words, I told Nicole about my idea.  She heard me out, and LOVED it!

Needless to say, my mind started to work into overdrive and do what I do best, plan.  I had so many great ideas for this scavenger hunt, I couldn’t contain myself, I was jumping out of my skin with excitement.  Ok so first things first, I wanted to do this the right.  Where do I start?  Copyright privileges!  Now, that’s not such an easy task.  It’s not like the movies are sitting around waiting on my phone call.  Searching high and low for a contact became a big challenge.  Eventually, I found an old online trail and followed it to success.  Kind of.  Believe it or not, I was able to get in touch with Summit Entertainment who owned the rights to the movies, the soundtrack and the photography.  Yes, I finally got a hold of someone internally in the copyright department!  We played phone tag and spoke on the phone a few nights, as well as corresponded through email.  Unfortunately, they did not give me permission to proceed using any of their copyrighted items.  Not that I blame them really.  Seriously, it’s not like I had any credentials or solid numbers to back up my abstract plans, it was just that, an idea.  And here I was talking to a major motion picture, a franchise worth billions of dollars, about my silly little concept with a bunch of unknown variables.  I will say they were very responsive and super nice!  And frankly, I’m surprised they entertained my free thinking dreams as long as they did.  I was crushed, but not ready to give up.

Next, I decided to contact the publisher, since I knew they owned the rights to the books and the covers.  It took me some time of reaching out to different publishers and several different companies, but finally I struck it rich, in the figurative sense.  I was able to get a hold of the right person, Stephanie Meyer’s agent.  Yep, I reached the top of the chain, second in line to Stephanie Myers herself.  I was so excited just to be conversing with this behind the scenes celebrity and sharing my ideas, again I thought I was going to explode with excitement.  We went back and forth via emails, playing phone tag, and voicemail tag, for a few weeks.  She loved my ideas, at least that’s what she claimed, even the details I shared with her about the scavenger hunt (which I will not divulge at this time, until I am able to execute my Twilight themed scavenger hunt).  Naturally, Nicole and I were declined copyright permission.  Again rightfully so, I really can’t blame Summit and the publisher; here we are two strange people with an idea, no business model, no concrete numbers, or solid plan of action and then asking a major franchise for copyright privileges.  Still it was a neat experience to go through.

*Please note with all of my correspondence between Summit Entertainment and the publishers, I chose to omit names out of respect.

Some may say, I was crazy but I still knew in my heart this was a fun idea and I could make it successful, I still do.  Personally I still really appreciate both parties for entertaining my request and taking the time out of their busy do to do so.  Getting a hold of Summit Entertainment and the publishers, was not an easy task, let me tell you.  Not that it should be, because if it were, then everyone under the sun would be bothering them.  God was on my side and guided me in the right direction through my entire investigation.  Please take my broad stroke statements and be aware, trying to get contact information for the decision makers of these major companies, when I had nothing to go off of, took persistence and a blessing from above.

Thanks to my sister, the idea of scavenger hunts was not a dead dog.  Nicole called me one evening and said, “You know what I think we should do?  I think we should start a company, which focuses on scavenger hunts.  We could do ones for businesses that are team builders or leadership scavenger hunts.” I never really thought about that angel, I stopped short on my idea of Twilight and never looked past it.  So, me being in marketing, I started to scope the potential competition.  I discovered no one was doing themed scavenger hunts, at least not on a large consistent scale.  Now this, I can work with and take somewhere.  Conversing with Nicole over the phone, we discussed the ideas of themed scavenger hunts, ones focusing on movies, books, singers, history events, pop culture etc.  Nicole loved the direction and so Thrill of the Hunt was born.

In order to get started we decided to hold a SpyRing themed scavenger hunt, which will be taking place this weekend at Legion Keener Park in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.  Click her for all the details.  Thrill of the Hunt was created not only to be educational and provide fun themed scavenger hunts for adults and children of all ages, but it was established on the foundation of community involvement and participation.  I want these events to not only hit major cities, but small towns as well.  At the SpyRing scavenger hunt, a percentage of the proceeds will be donated to help rebuild Playland.

Read a few articles below for more on the devastation of Playland.

This play area was really the best outdoor facility I’ve ever seen for children.  It was in a great location under trees at Legion Keener Park, entertaining kids of all ages.  It was really a project that involved the entire community.  I want to see it shine again and I want children to have the opportunity to have a safe place to play.

I usually don’t promote much on my blog, but I will give myself a little call out this time.  Please help support Thrill of the Hunt ( / ) and SpyRing ( / ), follow each company on Facebook and Twitter.  We are small town girls who want to set our dreams in motion through reinforcement of education for children and through the development of fun outlets such as a scavenger hunts, fun for the entire family.  Look for new scavenger hunt events near you or tell me where you want us to show up.  Thrill of the Hunt is a subsidiary of The Piper Corporation.