Staying at home and socially distanced during the coronavirus pandemic has forced people to find creative ways to exercise, get outside, spend time together as a family and entertain themselves. Concord’s Cate Simms has found a way to creatively combine all those things into one activity: The South End Scramble.
The basic concept is a word scramble on a neighborhood scale. There are 22 letters visible at 22 different homes throughout the South End in Concord, and those 22 letters combine to form a phrase.
The addresses of the homes are all listed on a message Simms posted on nextdoor.com. To play, people need to find the homes, find the letters and email their solution to southendscramble@gmail.com. The deadline to submit answers is Friday night. Anyone who answers correctly will be put into a raffle drawing and three winners will be chosen at random to receive a prize.
“One of my neighbors wanted to contribute to the prizes, so we bought little gift cards from local businesses so we can support them, too,” Simms said.
Simms organized the Scramble, but she borrowed the concept.
“I got the idea from my sister-in-law who lives in New Canaan, Conn.,” Simms said. “We both have kids under the age of 10 and she had sent a message about her kids on their bikes and said we’re going around looking for letters, and I thought our neighborhood is perfect for that. It’s flat, so it’s good for walking and kids can ride their bikes, and the houses are far apart so there won’t be crowds but not too far apart so it won’t be too hard.”
The first step for Simms was picking a solution, which came out to 22 letters and proved to be tougher than expected.
“Coming up with the solution was the hardest part,” Simms said. “I wanted something moderately supportive and positive, and I didn’t want to make it too difficult for the kids.”
Next, she reached out to about 25 people she knew in the South End to see if they would be willing to put a letter somewhere on their property after promising them the solution wouldn’t be something, “vulgar or really weird,” Simms said.
The responses were enthusiastic, and many people asked if their neighbors or family could be part of it. That enthusiasm carried over into the letter making and posting process.
“Some are super creative, some are kid created, some are computer printouts, some are three-foot letters that are like pieces of art,” Simms said.
All of the letters are visible from the street, which means people can collect them by driving by if they don’t want to walk or bike. It also means yards shouldn’t get trampled and social distances shouldn’t be compromised by overly eager puzzle solvers.
Simms, who grew up in Henniker and has lived in the South End since 2009, said she has gotten a “handful” of correct responses so far. She’s also gotten some positive feedback in the comments below her original post on nextdoor.com
“What FUN!!!!” – Liz and Mike McKinney wrote.
“This is awesome! The family and I are going to have so much fun. Thank you to everyone participating in this!” said Annie Morgan.
“Finding letters was easy,” Lorraine Connell said. As far as solving the puzzle, she posted two facepalm emojis expressing the soluntion was a little difficult.
Simms did post a hint to the solution in the comment section.
For those that can’t make it to the South End in time to find this set of letters, or for those who are ready for the next puzzle, there may be another chance.
“If people want me to make another one, I’d be happy to do that,” Simms said.
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20)