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SYRACUSE — After sitting on the idea for years, Syracuse resident Ben Kemper finally went for it. He wanted to organize treasure hunts for his community with the goal of giving back to others in the form of gift cards.
On Friday, he posted clues to the Syracuse Utah Citizens Facebook page to where he hid $100 gift cards. Three hunts later, there have been eight lucky winners in his community. After all, Kemper knows what it is like to be down on your luck.
“I’ve been in situations to where I’ve walked into a store with the coupon to get a gallon of orange juice,” he said. “I have worked pretty hard since then and put myself in a position where maybe I can help some people not have to experience that.”
Kemper said the response from the community was better than expected. The fun idea turned into a full-on event with hundreds of people flocking to the city’s parks.
“They are getting off the couch and they are spending time together in parks getting around,” Kemper said.
The man behind it all says there is nothing better than watching people work for a prize. Kemper said he enjoyed crafting clues on Facebook.
“You see a lot of negativity in the world, especially on Facebook, so I thought what if I could try to do an experiment and try to use Facebook and do something good with it,” he said. “With my clues, I think about what I could say about the surroundings to give someone an idea of where the gift cards are, but I don’t want to make it so obvious.”
There is another Syracuse scavenger hunt planned for Friday and another in the works, worth thousands, planned for people across the Wasatch Front.
“People are going to have to work for this, it’s not going to be easy,” he said.
