Michael Beaver and Ali Farhadi walk into the commons, holding half empty cans of monster energy drinks. They meet up with the 30+ other students who decided to attend the NHS Scavenger hunt for Cystic Fibrosis.
After conversing with friends and paying the $12 entrance fee, they receive their answer sheet and a bandana, which they have to tie their legs together to make it a three legged race. In their pockets are flashlights, a pencil, and their smartphones.
Eager to get started, they patiently await the reading of the rules by the NHS president, Matt Schneider. They are told that they have one hour to find 100 questions scattered around the school and answer them correctly to win a $15 gift certificate to Target.
“Our strategy was to go as fast as possible to get to every question as quick as possible.” Farhadi said.
The crowd of students around Beaver and Farhadi have pencils and papers ready, figuring out strategies to walk fast with their attached partners. At 7:10, Matt Schneider says “Go!” The crowd scatters to the first question.
“I thought it was competitive,” Beaver said. “The juniors wanted their points.”
Taking different paths around school, Fahardi and Beaver decide to go down the main hallway first, running as fast as they can to each green paper with a tricky question, awaiting to find an answer. As Farhadi reads questions relating to t.v. shows, movies, history, sports, and geography, Beaver searches his mind to find an answer. When they don’t know, they decide to waste time and search it on their smartphones, or move on to the next question.
“My favorite part was when me and Ali sprinted down the hall when our legs were tied together.” Beaver said.
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After they finish the main hallways, they visit the first floor, third floor, and the science wing, scurrying to each question that says “In ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ what is the principal’s name?” Or “How many years did Minnie Mouse appear after Micky Mouse?”.
“Some of the questions were really specific,” Beaver said. No one knew the exact amount if years Minnie Mouse came on t.v. after Micky Mouse.”
As time runs out, NHS officers who patrolled the school during this event, gave warning that they had ten minutes left. After answering as much questions as they could, Farhadi and Beaver go back to the commons and look up on their smartphones all the questions that they didn’t know, attempting to gain some answers and points along with it. They google the question and write down the answer as time comes close. When 8:10 strikes, Matt Schneider announces the end of the scavenger hunt and tells players to turn in their answer sheets and go enjoy food provided by other students.
“We ended up getting to all the questions,” Farhadi said. “We looked up like five questions because we would circle them, but we didn’t have enough time to look up all of them.”
They NHS officers grade everyone’s answer sheets while the players converse about the scavenge hunt and eat chips and snacks. Beaver and Farhadi discuss the difficulties of the questions with Andrew Scherff and Luke Mayorhoffer. They agreed that the questions were tricky and somewhat hard to answer.
“I liked the question ‘who died first? Biggie smalls or 2pac?’ Cause I knew it and Beaver didn’t,” Farhadi said.
Beaver and Farhadi discussed some more topics of the scavenger hunt before Matt Schneider approaches the group of students to announce the winner. He tells them that third place gets a $7 gift card to target, along with the second and first place of $10 and $15.
They hear the third place winners of Scherff and Mayorhoffer as they scored a 74%, along with the news of a tie for first and second place. Smitha Milli and her partner competed against Nathan Mills and Michael Lindsey for the spot of #1. Matt issues a tie-breaker round gives them another answer sheet and says eight questions relative to their charity, Cystic Fibrosis. As Beaver and Farhadi watch, guessing the answers themselves, the potential winners discuss the answer and write it down as well. When the round was up, Schneider announces grades the papers and announces the winners, Mills and Lindsey.
Beaver and Farhadi clean up their food and walk to their cars with smiles on their faces discussing the night of trivia they have just done and the fun that they’ve had. They didn’t win, but they had a good time for a good cause.
