The first annual HallowsCARE scavenger hunt isn’t just another early Halloween festivity; it’s a fundraiser to help solve ongoing community situations.
The scavenger hunt is a fully costumed amazing-race style event that will take place at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Teams of two to six participants will have to uncover clues hidden around campus within the time frame.
The event will benefit The TRUing Project, said Kristen Bowen, 19, the director of fundraising for The TRUing Project and creator of the HallowsCARE event.
"The funds that we raise from the event will be going back to The TRUing Project," Bowen said. "We try to find and create solutions for ongoing situations in the community and find sustainable fixes for them."
Tickets are $10 when pre-ordered before Oct. 26 and will be $12 at the event check-in, located at the Heavener Courtyard, Bowen said.
The TRUing Project is one of nine projects being undertaken by the UF chapter of Enactus, a national organization that focuses on creating sustainable impact on communities around the nation.
"The TRUing Project is named after the truing of a bicycle wheel," Bowen said. "It’s a representation of helping people get their lives back on center."
Amy Clear, the project manager of The TRUing Project, said the Enactus organization’s goal is to perform a needs analysis within a community and create a program that can evaluate that need and make a change. The TRUing Project’s goal is to help the Gainesville homeless population gain valuable skills to help them find and maintain a job, Clear said.
"We realized that homelessness is a huge issue for our city specifically. A lot of homeless adults whom we have met have a three- to five-year gap of unemployment that we call a resume gap. That gap makes it difficult to find and apply for a job because they are lacking general experience in the workplace," Clear said.
Clear and other Enactus volunteers work with the homeless population of Grace Marketplace three times a week for two-hour periods, Clear said. This mentorship program, which is actually a paid internship for the homeless individuals, helps the homeless interns gain professional skills as well as a unique skill that they can put on their resume — bike repair.
"One day a week, we work on interpersonal and business skills," Bowen said. "We really try to help them grow completely to be a more desirable applicant to obtain a job."
The other two days are spent at the soon-opening FreeWheel Project bike shop, where The TRUing Project hires mechanics to teach homeless interns how to repair bicycles, Clear said.
"Gainesville is a super bike-friendly community, and we love that we can add to that movement," Clear said. "We’ve gotten a majority of our bikes from apartment complexes where tenants have left them to rust. They are unusable so the complexes usually throw them away. Instead, we are able to remove the unwanted object and create something of value."
HallowsCARE will raise money to help The TRUing Project pay for mechanics, the rental of their bike repair shop space and for bicycles that homeless interns can assemble or fix, Clear said. The proceeds made from the bikes that the interns work on all goes back to the interns themselves, Bowen said.
"Enactus and The TRUing Project have shown me what a large impact you can make as an 18- or 19-year-old in the community," Bowen said. "I tend to stress myself out and stress about my future. Seeing the little steps I can do to help other people puts my life into perspective and helps me prioritize others."
Bowen said that Enactus is constantly looking for volunteers to take part in their projects, and that information could be found at ufenactus.org.
"Having a sense of pride again is really important," Clear said. "When you’re surrounded by individuals in disparaging circumstances, you can lose that sense of pride and value. Seeing that in our interns is the most rewarding part of it."
