Saturday morning, cars gathered at Café Downtown in Fort Coulonge to participate in a car rally scavenger hunt designed to teach participants about the town’s history.
Lana Marie Cowley, who works at Café Downtown, organized the event.
“The car rally takes participants through the town, its history and beauty. Teams will go as far as the Chutes Coulonge,” said Cowley, who recently moved to Fort Coulonge from Bristol.
She used to run a car rally there and wanted to bring it to her new home, so enlisted the help of new friends and coworkers to map out the route and learn about her own new community.
When each of the seven participating teams arrived at the café, they were handed a bag with their instructions. Each instruction kit had a booklet with questions for participants to answer throughout the hunt, including trivia questions like, “Who was the first mayor of Fort Coulonge?” and “Who is the coach of the Pontiac senior Comets?”
The $50 participation fee also got players a coupon for free popcorn from the cinema and a ticket for their group to enter the Chutes Coulonge Park for free. As participants travelled along their prescribed routes, they took photos and collected facts to gain points. More points also meant more chances to win prizes.
The first team back was made up of four lifelong residents of Fort Coulonge: Emma Mousseau, Audrey Laporte, Mackenzie Mousseau and Zachary Labrie.
Emma said that while she had previously been to many of the places on the scavenger route, Saturday’s hunt was her first time looking more carefully at her town’s history.
“We really had to research and go up to the signs,” she said. “We learned a lot of stuff in more detail than we knew before.”
Laporte said the highlight for her was getting to see the large waterfall right in her own backyard.
“My favourite part was getting to see the chutes,” Laporte said. “I had never been there before.”
The entire group nodded in agreement. Despite having lived in Fort Coulonge all their lives, this was the first time they had gone to see the popular natural attraction.
Emma, Audrey, Mackenzie and Zachary spent about four hours exploring their community, collecting photos and souvenirs along the way, before returning to Café Downtown in the evening, where they were treated to nachos.
Back at Café Downtown, each group’s photos were projected on a big screen so participants could reminisce on the day’s adventures.
