Sunday, April 20, 2014

The Holy Grail has been found - by an 8 year old!

The Aurora Fox and Visit Aurora announced winners for their
Quest for the Holy Grail – a geocache treasure hunt

Aurora, CO – To generate excitement for The Aurora Fox’s production of SPAMALOT (April 11th through May 4), The Aurora Fox Theatre on Colfax Avenue, and Visit Aurora created a Quest for the Holy Grail geocache game.
     The game involved finding hidden caches in various locations in Aurora, collecting stamps on a game card and deciphering clues and puzzles to come up with the winning phrase. Played in 4 phases, the first phase went live on March 20, with subsequent phases on the following 3 Thursdays.
      Home-schooled 8-year old Nate Siebert, with chauffeuring services offered by his mother, Laura, diligently plugged away week after week to solve some pretty cryptic puzzles. He had never done geocaching before but caught on fairly quickly. When asked about the game, Nate explained, “The caches were pretty easy to find, but the puzzles were hard!” 
     On the day the final cache was to be announced, Nate and his mother left the house at 5:50am and drove to the “middlest” part of Aurora they could think of (near 1-225 and Alameda)  and awaited publication of the coordinates .  Not long after, they found the final cache, quickly solved 3 math problems, finished filling out their game card and emailed the winning entry to The Fox by 7:31am. Second place winner, Wesley Schwarz, trailed by just an hour, submitting his entry at 8:32am.
     The Grand Prize ($500 plus a gift basket with an official Holy Grail, some fun Monty Python swag, Season Tickets to the Fox and coupons for free concessions) was awarded by Fox Marketing Director Patricia Wells and CEO of Visit Aurora, Gary Wheat, during the Fox’s SPAMALOT performance on  April 18th. Nate didn’t know in advance what exactly was going to happen that evening, so his surprised smile when he was called up to the stage was as genuine as they get. 
   Of note: Nate decided early in the game that if he won, he would donate $100 of his prize money to the Denver Actor’s Fund, a modest source of immediate, situational relief when members of the local theater community find themselves in great and sudden medical need. But he’s keeping the Grail (and the SPAM) for himself.
    Wesley Schwarz and his mother, Janice, collected their 2nd place prize basket that evening; 4th place winner,  Dala Giffin was also in attendance. Jerry Berry, a regular Fox patron and novice geocacher, was awarded his 3rd place prize package today, on Easter no less!! 


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