Students filled the West Gym on campus Friday night to participate in the Quest to Unravel Alzheimer’s Scavenger Hunt, a campus-wide event open to all students.

“It’s super easy to get involved and to raise money for a good cause,” said Brittany Ballantine, sophomore leisure, youth and human services major. “We have so many opportunities in college and it’s important to take those opportunities to help others. We are so fortunate and so blessed fortunate and so blessed to have these opportunities to even be in college and have the funds to do things.”
Students showed up in teams of up to four, and were encouraged to dress up for the event. The team with the most creative costumes won a goodie bucket that included free food donated by surrounding businesses.

Some of the teams at the event were Energizer QUASH Bunnies, the QUASHing Dead, the Incredible QUASHers and QUASH Dynasty. The team that won the costume contest was the Quizzical QUASHers.

After all teams received their packet of clues for the scavenger hunt, a short video clip was shown describing and detailing some of the statistics about Alzheimer’s.

“Alzheimer’s is becoming an epidemic,” said Allie Koolbeck, senior sociology major. “Giving people those statistics and numbers helps show the importance of the event. It’s also just a fun event – a good time for a good cause.”
Koolbeck also said “5.4 million people in the United States are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.”
“By the time our generation reaches the age of 65, the numbers of people affected by Alzheimer’s will be even worse,” said Ballantine.

For John Lippmann, sophomore criminology major, this was his second time participating in QUASH.

“Last year I QUASHed with my sister and she got me into it,” said Lippmann. “I had fun with it last year so I decided I’d come support it again.”
Each participant is encouraged to raise at least $100 on their own prior to the event. All proceeds go to funding research for finding a cure.

But as sophomore business management major Holly Seeman pointed out, it isn’t just about the money.

“ not only raises money for Alzheimer’s but it also raises awareness – knowledge is power,” said Seeman.

After the preliminaries of the event, the teams were then released to go solve and complete the different types of challenges and puzzles scattered around campus and the Hill.

“I like to think of QUASH as The Amazing Race but just on a smaller scale,” said Ballantine. “It’s all over campus and the Hill. Each team gets a packet of clues and they are going to disperse throughout campus and the different locations to figure out all of these clues. There are also QUASH spots where the teams can get 50 points. These spots are where the teams want to go to, but they also take the most time.”
Koolbeck said that while the events and challenges are fun and interactive, they are “supposed to represent the degenerative nature of Alzheimer’s.”
One of the physical challenges the teams had to face included filling up a bucket of water with a plastic cup in between the members’ forearms. Another challenge was to unravel a frozen t-shirt, put it on a team member and then take a picture and upload it to a social networking site.

For the mental challenges teams were asked various questions such as “What color is the picnic table on the front porch?” and “How many tree sculptures are south of the building?”

Teams had 90 minutes to complete all of the challenges, which took a lot of work to put together.
“Normally it has just been the Advocates for Alzheimer’s and a student organization that puts this on, but this year it’s been a little different. There are three facets; there’s the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance, the Advocates for Alzheimer’s (which is the student organization and is technically in charge of the event) and then there’s the Alzheimer’s Association and their staff,” said Koolbeck.

The “Q-Crew,” or the executive crew, is made up of six individuals from NLA, two interns from the Alzheimer’s Association and a member from Advocates for Alzheimer’s.

“Everyone should come out and QUASH next year; it’s a good time for a good cause. You get to run around with your friends and do crazy challenges while also making a difference in raising awareness and funds for Alzheimer’s and finding a cure,” said Koolbeck.

“You never should give up hope on finding a cure for this,” said Lippmann.