To kick off the 2009 fall semester at Oakland University, Credit Union ONE gave away $1,200 in a Twitter Scavenger hunt.

“We always try to do something fun and creative every year to welcome the OU students back to campus and familiarize them with Credit Union ONE’s products and services,” said Neetu Singh, CUO database marketing manager. “We’d love to do the scavenger hunt again, based on the positive feedback we received.”

From Sept. 14-16, CUO’s OU branch tweeted clues from its Twitter page at www.twitter.com/CUO_OU.

The clues led students to three locations on campus: the stairwell in the O’Rena, the wooden bear statue in Café O’Bears and the bulletin board on the second floor of the Oakland Center.

One tweet read: “Good morning, tweeps! Are you up and at ’em yet today? Coffee helps :)”

Each location had a card with a five-digit number on it. The first student to tweet that number back to CUO’s Twitter page won $250, the second $100 and the third $50.

Gabrielle Whitmore, a senior majoring in social work, found out about the contest through a friend who works at CUO.

She won $250 when she was the first to find the card located in the stairwell of the O’Rena.

“It took me forever,” Whitmore said. “I walked around the whole O’Rena and Rec Center. I somehow ended up in the basement of the O’Rena and took the stairs up to the main floor and that’s when I found it.”

Whitmore said OU’s fight song, which is written on the wall of that stairwell, was one of the clues. She said she plans on spending the money on textbooks and possibly an OU hoodie.

“Our goal … was to engage the students, and with the activity we were able to reach a large number of both new and existing students,” said Singh. “They were actively listening to what we had to say, asking questions, and eager to take advantage of the scavenger hunt to explore their campus.”