While the idea of scavenger hunts has been around for a while, recent years have shown a definite spike in the activity.

The competition is vastly becoming catered toward adults with hunts such as geocaching and GISHWHES (The Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen), a creation by actor Misha Collins that holds a world record for being the largest media scavenger hunt to ever take place.

Similar to University of Chicago’s Scav Hunt, which has been going on since 1987, the Oakland University Student Program Board will soon be hosting the first GrizzHunt.

“GrizzHunt is a campus- and community-wide scavenger hunt for Oakland University students,” said SPB President Cassie Hock.

The event will commence at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, March 30 and close at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, April 5.

SPB expects that there will be over 200 participants. There will be three different categories of scavenging.

The first involves typical scavenger hunt items, which require competitors to find something or complete a task and take a picture. Photos can be submitted on GrizzOrgs.

Participants may not only find physical items, but could potentially perform tasks such as finding a student who is able to tie a cherry stem into a knot with his or her tongue.

The next category is puzzles, which cover the history of Oakland as well as questions from all over campus. SPB emailed professors to ensure representation from every department.

“The cool thing is, because it represents all different departments, it will encourage teams to be diverse,” said Mackenzie Hill, special events director of SPB. “So, if you have a bunch of nurses on one team, you’re not going to be very good at the engineering questions and vice versa.”

The third category is promos. For example, every one of the GrizzHunt posters will have a promo on it worth 2 points.

SPB is also offering other student organizations the opportunity to claim a promo code, which will bring recognition to the organization. Hill requests that organization leaders email [email protected] a six-digit character code in order to be added to the list.

GrizzHunt prizes will include both experiences and items.

SPB has yet to purchase prizes, but possibilities include a side-by-side NASCAR drive, skydiving, Beats headphones and TVs.

Points will be awarded either individually, where every 10 points earns a raffle ticket, or by teams, which will result in the top-three teams receiving custom medals, as well as their name on a trophy.

The trophies will most likely be displayed in the SPB office window for years to come.

This event is free, and students can register on GrizzOrgs.

“We don’t have a lot of big traditions at Oakland, and I think this could become huge,” Hill said.