This Great Adventure sends families on fun missions

ChildStrive invites Snohomish County families with children to go on a great DIY adventure this October.

Formerly Little Red School House, ChildStrive helps children get the best start through early learning and child development services. With locations in Everett and Lynnwood, it specializes in helping kids from birth to 3 years old who have developmental delays and disabilities.

ChildStrive’s Great Adventure is an all-ages online game that you can play with the GooseChase app. Form a team — such as your family — and complete missions worth one to five points each. For every five points earned, your team will be entered into a drawing for prizes.

“We normally do a carnival, but considering the pandemic, we knew that wasn’t a great idea to have 500-plus kids and families running around,” said Rebecca Mauldin, a spokeswoman for ChildStrive. “So we were looking for something fun that kids and families could do together while social distancing.”

Whitney Stohr, of Lynnwood, is playing the game to support her 2-year-old son. Malachi Stohr-Hendrickson receives early intervention services through ChildStrive. Malachi has spina bifida, a birth defect where the spine and spinal cord don’t form properly. As such, he qualifies for in-home physical therapy and speech therapy until he is 4 years old.

Stohr was excited to sign her family up for the Great Adventure. She had never played a game through an app before.

“It was really nice to join in an event like this, especially with COVID-19, because we haven’t been able to really participate in much,” she said. “Especially with families like ours because we fall in that at-risk category.

“I thought it was a great idea as a way for us to get out into the community and interact with other families, but on a virtual platform.”

So far, Whitney and Malachi’s missions have taken them to Heritage Park in Lynnwood and Crucible Brewing, Diedrich Espresso and the Evergreen Arboretum & Gardens in Everett. (The scavenger hunts at Heritage Park and Evergreen Arboretum are worth 2 points each.)

“We’ve been checking off all of their scavenger hunt activities,” she said. “We’re doing pretty well. It’s pretty competitive, but we’re hanging in there.”

As you complete missions, share them via the GooseChase app so other families can see what you’re up to. Stohr said it makes the game competitive because you keep track of the other teams’ points. Her team has managed to stay in the top five.

“It keeps that community connection alive in this, event though we’re all doing separate things,” Mauldin said.

Missions include child development trivia, team selfies, scavenger hunts, video challenges and arts and crafts. New ones are added through Oct. 18.

“It’s a mix of activities at home with your family, in your neighborhood or out in the community, plus trivia questions and occasionally silly selfies, because those are always fun,” Mauldin said.

Mauldin said the game is designed for COVID times because teams are allowed to be picky about the missions they take. For example, if you’re not comfortable visiting a park to search for painted rocks, you don’t have to take that risk. There are plenty of missions that keep you safe at home.

Prizes include two Alaska Airline tickets to anywhere they fly and a Woodland Park Zoo Adventure Experience. You also get Great Adventure T-shirts. (A trip to pick up your ChildStrive swag is worth one point.)

As long as you earn at least five points, you have a chance to win. But the more missions you complete, the more chances you have. The deadline to enter the drawing is Oct. 18.

“Obviously your chances go up the more points you get because your name gets entered in more times because we’re going to do a drawing for the prizes,” Mauldin said.

Another one of the missions will take you to a ChildStrive donation box in Snohomish County. The wish list includes diapers, wipes and formula, as well as books and toys. For more information on how and what to donate, go to www.childstrive.org/support/donate. (A donation drop is worth five points.)

“Right now, it’s pretty heavy with diapers and wipes, because with the pandemic, families are having a harder time accessing those items and then, of course, affording those items,” Mauldin said.

Mauldin said the hope is that ChildStrive’s The Great Carnival will be back next year. Held at Everett’s Legion Park, the free event features carnival games and prizes for kids 1-5, hamburgers and hot dogs, a children’s concert, pony rides and a 5K walk/run. At last year’s carnival, ChildStrive raised nearly $22,000 to go toward in-home services.

If the Great Adventure game is a hit, Mauldin said they’ll add that to the carnival fun.

Sara Bruestle: 425-339-3046; sbruestle@heraldnet.com; @sarabruestle.

If you go

Through Oct. 18, ChildStrive, with locations in Everett and Lynnwood, is hosting a Great Adventure. Download the GooseChase app to play the family-friendly game. Form a team and complete missions worth one to five points each. For every five points earned, your team will be entered into a drawing for prizes. Call 425-353-5656 ext. 7103 or go to www.childstrive.org/greatadventure for more information.