With the medallion scavenger hunt officially over, BSM math teacher Mr. John Groess considers it to have been a success, and he was happy that students could be involved in something during school. “It seemed like people were really, really into it. …I think what I was happy with is that it made students excited to be here, which normally high school kids aren’t all in love with being at school but it seemed like more kids were happy with being here because they could look for it,” Groess said.

Groess sees this becoming a tradition and not simply a one-off for this Catholic Schools Week. “I’m hoping every year during Catholic Schools Week we hide it. I’m hoping it becomes a tradition,” Groess said.

Groess expressed that he was happy with the results of the scavenger hunt and glad that the school decided to undertake it. “I’m happy that we did it and mistakes were made because that means you’re trying something. And so just like anything, in your first year, it’s not as good as it could be but it can only get better. I’m happy with how it went, and I’ve learned some things from it,” Groess said.

The idea for the medallion hunt originally came from The Pioneer Press and the contest they hold every year, and Mr. Groess decided to take this idea to BSM on a whim. “Every year around this time they [the Pioneer Press] hide a medallion somewhere in the city, and if you find it you win 10,000 dollars. And so my friends and my family search for it every year. And it just ended maybe last week, and so when I was telling a co-worker about it… I kind of said we should do something like that here, one of the kids said it, and so I was like let me go talk to Mrs. Meagher. And as soon as I said it to her, she was like ‘this is amazing, let’s do it.’ It kind of happened that quickly, where it was in three days between ‘hey, we should do this,’ and them saying ‘yeah, let’s do it,’ Groess said.

The scavenger hunt was organized fairly last-minute, and it took quick work from the students and staff to ensure it happened in time. “I think the other part that was really cool was the fact that we could do it all with things we already have here. The actual making of it [sic], Thomas down in the engineering department, he 3D printed it in like a day. When I talked to Mrs. Koshiol and Mrs. Joseph about this, they got the [clues] on the website right away. It’s all stuff that we already had, which is cool,” Groess said.

Though the search went mostly to plan, Mr. Groess wants to make the rules more clear in the future and to make sure that the medallion is hidden in a relatively tough hiding spot. “The first day I would have read the rules on the announcements and put them really clearly on the Knight Errant website. The first day all I did was read the clue, and I think in hindsight I would’ve made it really clear where it would and wouldn’t be. I think the other thing that I might do is have all the clues listed on the same page or something,” Groess said.