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Burnaby woman starts Forest Grove scavenger hunt

While it isn’t gold, there is certainly treasure tucked away in the hills at the base of Burnaby Mountain.

While it isn’t gold, there is certainly treasure tucked away in the hills at the base of Burnaby Mountain.

Along the trail behind Forest Grove Elementary School, in the woods and throughout the neighbourhood, you can find the creations of the children of Forest Grove – pretty painted rocks, some with messages, all part of a special treasure hunt during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A neighbour suggested the idea of a scavenger hunt for kids to Clare Zeschky, creator of the private Facebook group, The Great Forest Grove Covid19 Treasure Hunt.

“I’d been thinking about the things we could do, because I know in other places they’ve been doing the hearts in windows and the rainbows and it was all really cute,” she said. “But a couple of summers ago, when I was on holiday with my mom and dad in York, my dad got (my daughter) Lara to paint all these little stones and we left them around the city walls. So we popped them into crevasses in the city walls for people to find.”

It’s an ideal activity for children because it involves collecting, painting, and hunting for rocks, she said.

“It was a full-scale thing that kids can get into instead of just painting a rainbow to put in a window,” Zeschky said. “It was an activity that could keep kids going for quite awhile and take some of the stress off parents.”

The group is popular in the small neighbourhood, with 54 members as of Monday, March 30 at 11 a.m. Zeschky allows in members who live in the neighbourhood, and others on a case-by-case basis.

“It was something that kids could really get involved in and grownups in the community as well, because I know there are quite a few grownups taking part, too,” Zeschky said. “It’s really kind of taken off and is running itself, and there’s lots of people involved. Every day there’s someone new putting a stone out there and it seems the kids are moving them around so you can find them in different places.”