New technology is changing the way we play old games. President of the Abilene Cultural Affairs Council, Trish Trifilo, dreamed up the idea to use an international scavenger hunt app during the 2015 Children’s Art and Literacy Festival in Abilene.
Trifilo had a free app open on her smart phone Tuesday as she navigated through a new game created for people in Abilene.
“This is called a goose chase app,” Trifilo said. “It’s an app that was created about four years ago by a group in Canada and the U.S. and it’s an international app. It’s a scavenger hunt game.”
Abilene’s Datroo Technologies sponsored the use of the app for one year. The hunt designed for the festival, Storybook Sculpture Scavenger Hunt, is made up of 30 missions, all located in downtown Abilene.
Trifilo was scrolling through the missions and began reading one out loud.
“At this particular zoo you’re sure to have a ball, don’t forget these animals won’t bite at all, actually there aren’t any animals at all,” Trifilo said. “Take a photo of you with the thing that makes your favorite sound”
Teams submit a picture as evidence that a mission is complete. The Abilene Cultural Affairs Council will judge the pictures and award creativity points for the best photography.
The team with the most points will receive five books autographed by best-selling children’s book illustrator and author David Shannon.
“As long as they complete at least ten missions they get the button, which is the storybook capital of Texas button and the only way to get it is to play the game,” Trifilo said.
This week Abilene received its first ever designation from the state of Texas. During the 84th Legislative session, which ended in June, the House and the Senate both passed a resolution naming Abilene the official Storybook Capital of Texas.
Trifilo said the new designation will increase tourism and she hopes more people will use the goose chase app to play games in Abilene all year long.
“They can see all the different statues, come on downtown, see the different things that the NCCIL has and it is just something fun to do for our own residents and for people around the state,” Trifilo said.
The Storybook Sculpture Scavenger Hunt for CALF ends with the festival but then other games will open up for the rest of the year.
