SKILL

#1: Gray Lumber is presenting this year’s Beyond The Backyard event! Get to their retail location, at 3800 6th Ave in Tacoma. Once there, you will need to find items throughout the store in order to perfectly replicate the letter “H” sculpture seen HERE. Take a close look at all of the components you would need to create it, then bring those pieces to the table set up in the hallway near the bathroom and work together as a team to build a matching version. Once completed, take a fun team picture with your sculpture while any Greys Lumber logo is visible somewhere in the background. If verified by our HQ, be sure to disassemble your pieces and place them back on the shelves where you got them so that other teams can use them.

#2: Get your team to Escape Hour Point Ruston (5020 Main Street). Once there head into the lobby and a staff member will instruct you on how to complete the puzzle. Work together as a team to solve the puzzle and reveal the 9-letter secret code word (hint: it’s something you are helping to provide to Habitat families through your fundraising efforts and being a part of this adventure race). Once you think you’ve solved it, take a celebratory team picture with the puzzle or the Escape Hour logo and submit the secret code word to HQ for verification.

#3: Every 5 seconds there are roughly 10 children around the world that are born into poverty. This staggering statistic shows why we need organizations like Habitat and supporters like you. To help grasp just how large this global problem is, complete the “5 Second Challenge”. On a mobile device have any one team member successfully use the stopwatch function to get the timer to stop at exactly 5 seconds. Once they’ve got it, have someone take their picture as they proudly display their device with 5.00 seconds clearly visible. This should be done using the stopwatch function and not the countdown/timer clock. Everyone can be attempting the challenge but only one member needs to complete it successfully. As every 5 seconds passes keep in mind some good news too, that in that short time frame there are also $240,000 donated to charities around the world.

#4: Rock Balancing is an internationally recognized craft, as seen HERE. Many say it leads to stress relief and improved happiness, which is something we all could use these days. Get your team to any natural water landscape where medium to large rocks can be found (like a creek or a beach, not your backyard garden bed) so that after you leave others can enjoy your creation. Once there, work together as a team to create a balanced rock stack that is at least knee-height of any of your adult team members. Once it is tall enough take a fun team picture with your masterpiece before it falls.

PHYSICAL

#5: Harvest Pierce County helps support over 80 community food projects, including a network of community gardens. One of those gardens, located at Orchard and Vine is managed by a small group of passionate gardeners that grow organic produce and flowers of all types for their home use and for donating to local food banks. Get your team to this beautiful garden (4501 North Orchard Street) where you will each help plant a sunflower seed to assist with a project called Sunflowers for Peace. Trays with pots and potting soil will be provided for you on the picnic tables in the rear of the garden. Fill a pot and plant a sunflower seed in the pot 1/2 inch deep. Create a tag labeled “Sunflower for Peace” along with your initials. Place it in your pot and place the pot in the tray. At some point throughout the challenge take a video of your team planting your sunflowers, or take a fun team picture with all of your completed pots. Then on the way out be sure to close the gate behind you and thank any staff on site for sharing this beautiful space.

#6: Anywhere around the area, take a picture of your team forming a 3-tiered, human pyramid inside of any elevator. You’ll need at least 6 people to properly form 3 tiers, so recruit kind strangers if needed. The elevator can be stopped at a floor with the door open as long as your pyramid is performed inside the actual elevator.

#7: Today is National Red Cross Founders Day. 140 years ago, Clara Barton established the American Red Cross and it has been a tremendous source of aid since then. To honor Clara’s efforts on the battlefield as a nurse and the legacy she created with this impactful organization, find any Red Cross emblem around the area. Once there, designate one of your teammates as an “injured soldier”. Then take a picture demonstrating the “correct way to carry an injured soldier”, as referenced in the picture found HERE by soldiers from the 1800’s. If you have a lot of people on your team you can divide up and carry multiple “victims”, or if you have a small team you can recruit strangers to help out if needed. Make sure the Red Cross emblem is visible in the background and gently lower your victim back down after you’re finished, just like Clara would have done.

#8: To honor and show respect for the different backgrounds we all come from, and how important it is for us to come together, get to any location around the area where two different countries flags are being flown within view of each other. Once there take a video of your team all completing the Diversity Becomes One Challenge. Basically, your team members will all be standing shoulder to shoulder in a tight clump/circle with your backs all facing in and your arms interlocked. Slowly lower the entire interlocked group to the ground until you are in a seated position with your butt on the ground, and then slowly stand back up while remaining interlocked. Make sure the two countries flags are visible at some point in the video. To watch a video of a group successfully completing this challenge click HERE.

FIND

#9: Get your team to Curran Apple Orchard Park (3920 Grandview Drive West in University Place). Once there, find the apple tree that has been adopted in honor of Tacoma/Pierce County Habitat for Humanity. To help you find it, use the map found HERE. The tree can be found in a row whose 2 digits add up to 8. For example, if there were a row 62 (there isn’t) you would want to search that row because 6 plus 2 equals 8. Once you’ve found the tree take a picture of your entire team all completing any variation of the "Tree Pose" in front of it. If we can’t confirm that it is the Habitat tree from your picture you may need to submit a separate picture with the sign. To view a picture of someone properly performing a variation of the Tree Pose click HERE.

#10: Anywhere around the area take a team picture with any boat name that would be considered an “alliteration” (two consecutive words that start with the same letter). For example, it could be a boat named “Speedy Salmon” or “Jenny’s Journey” but not “Happy Trails”.

#11: Take a picture of your team while an old fashioned barber pole is visible in the background and each team member has an excessive amount of shaving cream smeared on their face as if they’re about to get a fresh shave. The barber pole will likely be a staff or pole with a helix of colored stripes and might be stationary or revolve. To view an example of a valid barber pole and learn the history of them click HERE.

#12: To build anything great, whether that’s an organization like Habitat for Humanity, or an affordable home for a family in need, requires great leadership and people working together. Scattered around the city are a number of statues of humans, many of whom impacted this place in significant ways. Find any life-size statue of a human and take a fun team picture with the statue reacting wildly as if you’ve just met your longtime icon. Then after this event, live each day in a way that will make people want to build a statue of you in the future.

FUN

#13: Get to the set of 6 slides shown HERE, which are built upon what used to be a toxic wasteland but now consists of serene green space and spectacular marine and mountain vistas. Once there, start your team at the top slide and take one continuous video of everyone attempting to make it down all 6 slides together in less than 60 total seconds. You’ll need to move quickly down each slide and from one slide to another, but make sure you are considerate of other visitors who are enjoying the park. You can explain to them what you are attempting to do and maybe they will cheer you on, but we will also be a little lenient if you are a few seconds over the cutoff and had to wait for small children who were also using the slide.

#14: Today’s weather reminds us that summer is almost here! To celebrate, find any fountain around the area (the decorative kind, not one that you’d drink out of). On your way there get each team member their own store bought bottle of water. Try to get ones from a convenience store that came right out of the refrigerated shelves so that they’re really cold, as opposed to a bulk package from a grocery store which would be room temperature. At the fountain take a memorable team picture right at the moment when each team member pours the cold bottle of water over their head. Whether you have someone take the picture for you, or you use a timer on your device, work together as a team to try and snap it right at the moment the cold water is pouring onto your heads.

#15: Get to any clothing or apparel store and find two different items with enough in stock that every team member can be wearing the same two items in their own sizes. Then take a fun team picture with everyone wearing those items. For example it may be a wacky shirt, and a pair of shorts. Or maybe some cozy slippers and a large sun hat. As long as everyone is wearing the same exact two items but in their own sizes.

#16: A few days ago was National Have a Coke Day (it’s true, look it up). To celebrate this popular American drink find any vending machine that sells Coke. Buy one but instead of taking it with you, leave it in the dispenser tray with a note that says:

Have a Coke on us!

Love, (Your Team Name)

Tacoma/Pierce County Habitat for Humanity Adventure Race

Then take a picture of your team and your Act Of Kindness so that the vending machine, the free Coke, and your note are all visible if possible.