Adventures in Oz at Hampton Park

Submitted by Kayla Bolton

This summer IS and YS staff teamed up to create a Wizard of Oz escape room. From its inception to the finishing touches, this has been an amazing undertaking combining hours of work from both staff and volunteers. 

After heading out of Dorothy's home in Kansas, patrons followed the yellow brick road to many iconic Oz locations including Munchkinland, the Dark Forest, and the Emerald City. They solved riddles, deciphered messages in Morse code, found clues in pockets of well-known characters, and counted various objects in the room in order to open the locks and receive their buttons. A hot air balloon prop provided a great opportunity for pictures. 

Each morning at opening, staff manned the phone as countless calls came through asking to join an escape room for that day. We received so many calls that we ended up opening more sessions as the week wore on. Over the course of seven days, we saw a total of 267 participants!

Many patrons were amazed at the decor and puzzles that were created by staff. Special thanks to Amy, Chase, Jennifer, Kelly, and LeAnne for their hard work and dedication to make this our most successful escape room yet!