Stand in a grocery store freezer - 140 points. Steal candy from a child - 40 points.
About 50 UF students participated in Florida Best Buddies third annual Midnight Madness Scavenger Hunt Saturday at Silver-Q Billiards & Sports bar.
The 11 teams performed tasks at various spots around Gainesville documenting the completion of each list item with a photo. The teams raced around from 11 a.m. to 9:45 p.m.
UF sociology major and Best Buddies member Bryan Rhodes, 20, said although he wanted to give up at times, his teammates, two mentally retarded children, helped keep him going. He said his buddies had so much energy that he did not want to let them down.
Rhodes' team won the event with a total of 4,470 points. All the group members and their buddies received gift cards to Target.
Jessica Dominguez, college programs manager for Best Buddies Florida, said the hunt was scheduled for spring but was postponed because of a lack of community support.
Dominguez said Florida Best Buddies hoped to raise $7,000 this year. She said because of the bad economy it was difficult to receive sponsorship from the community.
Best Buddies raised about $10,000 at the 2008 scavenger hunt and had more participants.
She said it was difficult because there was no campus committee for the event.
Instead, UF public relations junior and the event's recruitment chairwoman Keely McKissack was the only student in the Gainesville area in charge of organizing the event.
McKissack said at the spring 2008 scavenger hunt there were 40 teams and half of the teams were from Greek organizations.
"We were relying on the Greeks," she said.
However, she said the Greek organizations were unresponsive this year.
