From May, 2013
Images by Keri Wiginton and Jason Smith
The much-beloved University of Chicago tradition and Guinness World Record-holding Scavenger Hunt (Scav) returned May 8-12, with a list of 318 items as well as a 10-event Scav Olympics competition.
This four-day tradition, created and judged by the RSO Scav Hunt, encourages teams of students to create and find more than 300 unique items on campus and in the city of Chicago. This was the 27th year for the event.
Some of this year's more intriguing items:
#5: Someone has placed a rock at 53rd and Kenwood to mark the site of Barack and Michelle Obama’s first kiss, which apparently “tasted like chocolate." But Hyde Parkers don’t have enough information about where and when other major personal events in Barack Obama’s life occurred in our neighborhood. Add your rock, complete with etched, illustrated plaque, to the site of another Barack Obama landmark of your choice.
#43: Correct the greatest tonsorial tragedy of our time by donating your mustaches to the Institute of Politics.
#150: We know that, as much as we hope they don’t, some Scavvies wear out during the Hunt and start to get a little sad. What if no one is in Headquarters when that happens!?! The solution? A hug machine! Must be platonic, but not cold, firm, but not uncomfortable.
Approximately more than 500 students participate on 12 teams each year, with many teams formed in the house system. There is also a road trip component that requires each team to send a delegation to a neighboring state for additional items. Teams often display or create items on the Main Quads so that they are highly visible to passers-by. In previous years, students have brought an elephant to campus and built a breeder reactor in a shed on the campus’s main quadrangles.
The hunt ended on May 12 in a daylong showcase and ‘Judgment’ during which a winning team was chosen. This year’s winner was BroStoMP FM, who bested last year's winner Burton-Judson and put four-time reigning champion Snell-Hitchcock in third place.