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Neighbors | Natalie Wright.A team examined pictures on the wall of the Poland library for clues to the location of Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem during the Escape Hogwarts event. The team had to put together the clues and find the diadem before the timer ran out to complete the challenge.
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Neighbors | Natalie Wright.Two participants worked together to put in the correct combination on a lock on a bureau at the Poland library. They hoped to find more clues to the Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw's location so they could complete the escape room challenge.
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Neighbors | Natalie Wright.This team was the first to try to complete the escape room style event on July 19 at the Poland library. They put together the clues and found Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem with one minute and thirty-eight second left on the clock.
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Neighbors | Natalie Wright.Two participants looked through the cloaks and scarf props that were part of the Escape Hogwarts event at the Poland library on July 19.
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Neighbors | Natalie Wright.The first team at the Poland library's Escape Hogwarts event worked together to compare the clues they had found. Clues could be inside books, on items, written in invisible ink and more.
Sleuths and fans from throughout the area came to the Poland library on July 19 to find clues and have fun as part of its Escape Hogwarts event.
The premise of the event revolved around a story that combined elements from several books in the “Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling. A descendent of Professor Quirrell had traveled back in time and stolen the Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw, one of the founding figures of Howarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The teams had to find all of the clues and put them together to find the diadem so they could escape Hogwarts.
Each small team had 30 minutes to complete the task.
Librarian Annette Ahrens said that she was inspired to host the event because of the successful escape rooms hosted last year in Canfield and her own enjoyment of participating in an escape room on vacation in Myrtle Beach. She found instructions on how to host a Harry Potter themed one on Pinterest, but she said she altered the instructions to fit what she wanted to bring to the library.
Many of the clues used in the event belonged to Ahrens. She even brought a plant from home to use as a clue for the Herbology portion. Other clues used in the game were books, including books from the actual “Harry Potter” series; puppets, small safes, locks, messages only able to be seen with use of a black light, theme-related clothing and more. Clues piled up on and branched off to the locations of other clues. Some clues were even fake and meant to mislead the teams.
“I had a hard time not giving out clues because I want them to succeed,” Ahrens said.
If the teams did need a clue Ahrens was on hand to help them out, but she said she enjoyed watching them search and put clues together. She was amazed at how clever the teams were and their luck at picking up just the right item to find a clue.
The first team to go through the puzzle finished with one minute and thirty-eight seconds left on the clock.