The Scw’exmx Child and Family Services Society (SCFSS) will be hosting its first ever, spring scavenger hunt.

The inaugural game is set to run from March 18 to April 1 and is open for all to join.

“We wanted to make it something that would really encompass the entire valley from top to bottom,” said Collin Budd, Communications Coordinator for the SCFSS. “Something that involved everybody rather than just being Merritt-centric.”

The 2022 Spring Scavenger Hunt will have over 200 challenges each one varying in difficulty and in nature.

“We didn’t want to come up with just frivolous silly challenges like do a hopscotch,” said Budd. “We want to make them good challenges so people have to spend time on them.”

People looking to participate could join individually or by groups of up to six members.

“The goal is to get people working together and out of the house again,” “Everyone from family to coworkers, we’d love to have them.”

The challenges will have corresponding points participants could earn upon completion adding to their overall points. The player or group or players with the most points by April 1 will be crowned the winner and will receive a cash prize of $500.

“Some of the easier challenges like ‘find a piece of clothing that looks like this’ will only be worth 100 to 200 points,” said Budd. “Some of the cultural languages ones would be worth 500 or 600 points, and some of the ones that involve hiking or the outdoors or the water or the land might be worth 1000 points.”

The game will be accessed and tracked through an app called GooseChase. Inside the app there will be a live leaderboard for contestants to see where they rank among all players or groups. SCFSS will also share the results on their Facebook page creating a video diary showing the contestants doing their challenges.

Some of the cultural challenges will have participants speaking with elders, learning stories and songs, and drumming.

“Nsyilxcin and N?e?kepmxcin are two very integral languages and we want to make sure we focus on making it a part of this, weaved in in every single way,” said Budd.

A number of families and individuals have already signed up to participate in the hunt with the youngest player being 8 years old.

The RCMP have also joined in the fun creating a team called: ‘All Law, No Order’

SCFSS will also have an internal team consisting of staff members who, like the contestants, are not aware of the challenges. Individuals and teams who rack more points than the internal team will have a chance to win bonus prizes.

Other bonus prizes will be awarded to the participants in certain challenges. Prizes will be given out by local businesses such as Breathe Bikes, Merritt Toys and Games, and Miss Vicki’s Petals and Plants Flower Shop.

“I am really happy that they’ve asked me to be involved in this,” says Vicki Hansen, owner of the flower shop. “I believe that Merritt at this point in time needs some cheering up and I’m just happy to be a part of it.”

Kick-off for the 2022 Spring Scavenger Hunt will be on Friday, March 18 at the Spirit Square where the challenges will be revealed to the players.

For more information or to register, email [email protected] or call (250) 378-2771.