(PRWEB) September 30, 2013
On Saturday September 14, 2013, Screenflex Portable Room Dividers hosted a stop for the annual Hawthorn Woods Treasure hunt, a road rally, held in the suburban Chicago area. Since its inaugural event in 1981, the popular multi-stop road rally has tested the wit and puzzle solving abilities of its participants. In addition to having fun, the goal of the rally is to visit sites, ascertain which are the correct clues, and solve the puzzles that will lead you to the dinner location. This year, Screenflex Portable Room Dividers offered its warehouse as a stop along the event’s route.
First organized by the Hawthorn Women’s Club In 1981, the event has proven so popular that even though the Women’s club no longer hosts the event, many of the same teams are still going strong after thirty-two years. Every year, fifteen, six member teams vie for the coveted first place trophy, as well as immunity from organizing next year’s event. Each team sets out in a single vehicle, intent on visiting all 15 sites in order to solve a variety of complex and often times zany puzzles.
Teams receive a map and supplies with which to locate the various sites and solve the puzzles. The answer at each site is a symbol corresponding to an identifying symbol on the hunt map. Each team’s map has approximately 30 symbols, some real and some not, and it is up to the each team to decide if they have the correct answer needed to proceed to the next site. There are no addresses given on the maps, and sites are marked on the map with only an arrow. To verify if a location is a designated site stop, hunters look for green stakes planted in the ground at the location.
In order to sustain such an event and keep the content fresh, responsibility for organizing logistics falls on a different group of participants each year. Planners find 15 different sites as stops on the route and dream up creative themes to tease the cognitive sensibilities of their teams. One of this year’s planners was Screenflex employee Steve Bonesz, who took charge of the theme and clues for the Screenflex location.
At the Screenflex site, hunters were greeted by a partially open black Screenflex room divider. Briefed on their task by a slightly mad scientist,they were instructedto decode the secret government message hidden somewhere on the divider. The hinged 13-panel, 24’ long, 8’ high divider on caster wheels, could be arranged in many configurations depending on which panels you folded and which you left open. The divider was decorated on one side with large, seemingly random pinned, stapled and taped numbers, letters, magazine and newspaper articles, photos, and yarn, connecting all these items in cobweb like pattern, similar to that in the popular movie A Beautiful Mind.
Instructions for configuring the divider were written somewhere on the room divider. If the instructions were followed accurately, a message corresponding to the next map location could be seen, directing hunters to the next location.
Screenflex Portable Room Dividers was pleased to provide supplies and materials for this event.
To view a short video montage of the Screenflex site, visit our YouTube channel http://bit.ly/19kqwpp. For the most up to the minute information on participating in next year’s event, and event photos, visit Facebook.com/Hawthorn-Woods-Treasure-Hunt.