.
Search
Email this articleE-mail this story  Discuss this articleWrite letter to editor  Discuss this articleOrder a classified ad

Out on the hunt

Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Oct 17/03) - If you're the type of person who never throws anything out, you'd have done well in the Delta Daze Scavenger Hunt.

Lions Club President Vicki Boudreau said it's been about 10 years since Delta Daze held the scavenger hunt, but they always had fun with it.

She said the idea to rekindle the old flame came from a wedding in Dawson City where the bride and groom organized a scavenger hunt, to break the ice between the two families and friends.

"It was a fun time and since we didn't have the midnight dance this year, we thought we'd hold the scavenger hunt," Boudreau said.

"There was enough people interested that we thought we'd give it a try."

Teams were given three hours to round up a veritable yard sale of 150 items from their homes, friends, family, businesses or even the dump.

Boudreau took the 1993 list and updated some items, like the Cabbage Patch doll, which she thought was a bit too difficult and instead added something from Dora the Explorer.

Another item on the old list was a "Beaufort Box," which was a tough task even 10 years ago.

The boxes were built and sold by Junior Achievement with help from Gulf Canada.

"They were a nice little wooden box, with a plexiglass front on it," Boudreau explains.

"Inside were two little vials: one had Moligak Oil and one with Beaufort Sea salt water."

"Lots of people around town had them and I knew of at least six of them."

The updated list of 150 items on the hunt included such obscure things as an AC/DC cassette tape, a rotary dial phone, three broken wrist watches, a man's bow tie and a dollar bill.

"There are lots of American dollar bills up here, but if people are thinking Canadian, they might have a hard time finding one," she said. "A rotary dial phone might be difficult to find."

Jojo Arey of the Maple Leaf team had a tough time finding the raven feather.

"The dump was closed, so I had to run all the way around," Arey laughed.

The only team to gather all 150 items was Big Show, led by Mike "Big Show" Hollick, Denny Rodgers, Sara Forbes and Sue Clarkson.

Hollick said the team were scrambling, but took it one piece at a time.

"It was tough," Hollick said. "There was a lot of confusion, a lot of miscommunication and we were frustrated early on, but we held it together."

The crib board was the last item they brought in, but the rotary dial phone was about the toughest to find.

"We have to thank Ron Morrison for that -- he saved it for us."

There was a youth category, but only one team showed up, giving Joey Medernach and Mathew Dyck a lock on the $200 prize.

The youth had 75 items on their list and Joey and Mathew managed to find 56.

Working out of Mathew's sister's bedroom, the guys worked back and forth between their two homes and from a friend's place.

"It was a great time, but we never thought we'd win," Joey said.