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Spy Email Adventure!
Perfect for office fun!
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Theme Ideas | ||
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Prizes and Endings | ||
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Fun Stuff | ||
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Treasure Hunt Don'ts!!! | ||
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Clues and Misc. | ||
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A Treasure of a Fundraiser - incorporating a themed treasure hunt for a fundraising event |
Themes * Great lovers in history - incorporate images, clues and maps from famous lovers all over the world and throughout time (i.e. Antony & Cleopatra, etc.) * Retrace the steps of your relationship - Have them revisit the site of your first/memorable dates, old houses you used to live in, places you fell in love. Make it chronological to build as your relationship grew. For those places that may be out of reach (i.e. out of state), but that you would still like to include, try postcards or photos to be picked up in appropriate locations. * Their (more likely HER) favorite romantic movie. Have things happen to her similar to how they happened to her counterpart in the movie. Let her live out some memorable scenes. The whole treasure hunt could be connected by these scenes that she gets to live out. * Casanova - research some information on this legendary lover. Coordinate everything with a French theme. * Begin with he/she finding a note in a bottle (in the water or washed ashore) from a lost lover at see. The note is to his/her lover they left behind - your participant must reunite these two lovers. If you are clever enough, you could write a whole story on this. * If he/she has a favorite novel, let them use it as part of their clues. Incorporate the story of the book into the treasure hunt so that they can live out their favorite literary character. * Build up a mystery by having them receive messages or a single REPEATED message from 'a man in a black cape' or 'a woman in a red dress.' * Do a 'poor man's' honeymoon. Wherever you went for your honeymoon, you could recreate the scene and activities. Get some postcards from the location - or make your own on the computer. You can order travel guides free - or get them from a local travel agent. Where did you eat? Is there somewhere you could go that would remind them of that place? Etc. * Involving the interest of the person going on
the treasure hunt. For example, if they like horses or woodworking,
fishing, beaches, sunsets, dolphins, scrapbooking, etc. - incorporate
these into the hunt. |
Prizes & Endings * You could give them their favorite romantic movie (perhaps women only) * If you as a couple have a movie that is 'yours' (i.e. your first date, a memorable date, etc.) give a copy of that. If you are clever with computer graphics, you can download the movie poster of that movie and put your own faces in it! * Have the premise be to look for 'the most beautiful thing in all the world' - the final object is a mirror of which they can look into. * A glass blown flower (will work especially well if you incorporate the flower pedals and flowers theme mentioned elsewhere) * Have the prize be a location, like a special
place to meet for dinner. Set up a hot dinner on a beach. Get friends
in on it and have them wait on you. Or at a park. Or even a center
divider of a major boulevard (yes, I did that once.) It was fun,
but kind of noisy because cards were constantly honking and smiling
as they passed. Still, get creative. Rent a generator and watch
a romantic movie on the beach (TV and VCR) - be sure to bring blankets. |
Fun Stuff * Unravel yarn throughout the whole house, with little treats and cards along the way. The person must wind up the yarn in a ball as they travel throughout the house, being careful not to pull on it or they will lose the placement of their little prizes. Make the best prize at the end. * Give a card a day for a couple of weeks/days leading up to Valentine's Day. There could be a small clue in every one. They could string all the words together from every card to make a secret message at the end. * Use flower pedals to make a path (careful outside, lest they blow away) * Put a note in a bottle * It wasn't for Valentine's Day, but it definitely could have been. Soon after we got married, my wife, having just got home at 9:00 at night from a wedding she was coordinating, came in the door expecting to just sit on the couch and avoid looking at the kitchen. When she got home, though, I had made a sign on the door saying "Welcome to Sherwood Forrest." In the living room, I had pushed all the furniture back and laid a blanket on the floor with drinks, cheese and crackers and little goodies. The neatest part was when I took a few DOZEN strings of black thread (varrying lengths) and taked them to the ceiling over the blanket. To these strings I taped lots of fall colored leaves I cut out of construction paper - with spaces between each leaf. Because the room was dimly lit (lanterns only) You couldn't see the thread, only the 'falling' leaves. I then spread a few dozen other paper leaves about the edge of the blanket (with the falling leaves just over our head.) Guys, this was VERY romantic - and VERY relaxing....oh, I also had the Bryan Adams song "Anything for You" from the Robin Hood movie playing - sort of one of our songs. * Call up your local barbershop quartet. There are organizations all over the US - you should have no problem finding one locally. One Valentine's Day, I had a quartet go to my wife's work. It only cost me $40 and boy did it go a long way! When they arrived (just before closing time at 5:00) at the mortgage firm, I was told that nobody in the office had received any flowers or anything. By the time the quartet got there, all donned in their straw hats and striped shirts, all the women of the office gathered around while they sang a couple of love songs to my wife and gave her a flower before they left. Very Cool! * If you know of someone who speaks French (or brave enough to ask a University or High School professor...) have a poem translated in French. If you can take it further, have them tape their voice saying poem in French. Practice it over and over until you got it down so it sounds nice. * Put a special ad in the love section of the local paper. It could an intimate message or their next clue. * Have a card or letter mailed/postmarked from LOVEland, Colorado (an actual city) |
Treasure Hunt DON'TS!!! * Put a ring in a shell (unless you intend to break it)
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Clues and Misc. * Have them watch a couple of romantic movies to get a clue (perhaps a time to meet you, a street name, or location) * Write a message or map on the BACK plain side of a 12 piece kid's puzzle. Put the puzzle upside down together first. Then draw away. You could have them receive puzzle pieces throughout the week before in creative different ways (i.e. mail, cooworkers, on their car, etc.) or they could search for them as part of their hunt. Make sure that the 'key' piece(s) are found last. * Have the waiter at the restaurant bring over a secret or urgent message (depending on your theme). This works especially great if you know of anyone that is a waiter who could help you plan this one. * Use a polaroid camera to go somewhere special/scenic to have their picture taken. Have someone standing in the bushes at the time. When you ask an 'innocent' stand-byer to take the picture, the person comes out of the bushes and holds up a sign over your heads. It could be an intimate message or another clue. * Make up a tape of songs that either are special to you as a couple or songs that bring back memories of a specific time or location. They could listen to the songs and keep track of either where they were when that song became significant or other such clues. |
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A
Treasure of a Fundraiser Throughout the 15+ years of designing themed treasure hunts professionally, some of the most successful and exciting events planned were for fundraising efforts. With low overhead costs and the ability to generate a lot of excitement for a fresh, new type of event, themed adventures are proving to be more and more successful in raising money for private and public organizations, large and small. There are a number of different creative and exciting ways to raise money by planning a themed treasure hunt. This article will attempt to 'whet your appetite' as to the numerous ways funds can be raised and excitement generated for your next fundraising event. The hunt
itself can vary greatly in both size and budget. Some hunts I've
produced have been for crowds in the hundreds paying small entrant
fees - all attempting to be the first to complete the hunt for
a prize donated by a local merchant. Others have been considerably
more sophisticated, as in the case of a California Department
of Mental Health function held a few years ago. Bids were sold
to a more affluent crowd and a Quest for the Holy Grail adventure
was held on the grounds of a very large and wealthy estate. (For
more information on the Quest for the Holy Grail adventure, click
here) The flexibility exists to ensure that every group fundraiser
can be successful, no matter the size, age or affluence of the The following is a collection of ideas to show the various and numerous ways to raise money easily and creatively by planning a fantastic themed treasure hunt adventure & · Begin by planning on selling tickets to participate in the event. The adventure itself will be worth the price of the ticket, by following the step-by-step instructions of planning this kind of themed adventure. Ticket prices can vary depending on the demographics of your participants. For example, if your are planning an event involving high school aged students, you'd probably fair better at selling hundreds of tickets at a cheaper price. However, if you were planning an event for a more mature and sophisticated crowd, you might want sell tickets at a much higher price, making available only a set number of tickets for purchase to ensure higher odds at winning the grand prize for the participants (especially if a prize is given for the winning team.) · Great prizes can be offered. Many groups have been very successful at arranging for prizes to be donated by local merchants. Sometimes a large prize was donated, such as a television set. At other times, a small basket of several smaller gifts has been offered from donating merchants ($15 gift certificates, etc.) Prizes can also come in the form of services provided by the organization planning the adventure. For example, a prom committee raising funds for their dance could give out free Prom bids to the first five finishing teams. Another idea for a prize is to have the top placing teams being refunded their entry fee - or even getting a percentage of the total proceeds taken in by the event. ·
Here are a few tricks to get prizes donated · As a way to enhance your theme, find out if a local costume shop will donate one or some of the needed costumes · Curtailing the above, if there are any other props or set pieces that would enhance your theme, find out if there are any vendors who would donate them in exchange for a form of advertising · Capitalize on your theme. Is your theme based on Pirates of the Caribbean? Why not have a small pirate port themed area at the beginning/end of the hunt and sell spaces to vendors where themed items and food can be sold? The same would work for a mini Renaissance Faire or an Egyptian marketplace. Depending on your theme, you could really plan a spectacular bazaar that could rival the hunt itself for excitement! · Print up a mini story or background piece about the theme and storyline of your adventure treasure hunt and distribute them to the participants before they begin. It will generate a lot of enthusiasm when your participants get consumed with the story. · Once the event is proven as a success, it could easily be turned into an annual event, as it did with several of my clients. Teams from the year before often reassembled in later hunts to try once more to win the prize. A continuing plaque or trophy could be displayed with the current and all past year's winners. Perhaps the greatest part about planning a themed treasure hunt adventure for your next fundraiser, besides all the excitement it will generate, is the fact that it has a potentially very high chance of having very little overhead costs. Aside from some photocopies and footwork, few other expenses need to be expended - now that is music to a fundraiser's ears! Plan something new and exciting that everyone will remember in future years! Plan a treasure of a fundraiser!
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