Fairborn Rocks | Photo by Tricia Spurlock
To celebrate Fairborn’s 70th year anniversary, the Fairborn Parks and Recreation department is hosting a city-wide scavenger hunt with painted rocks hidden around parks, Wright State University (WSU) and near the Wright Patt Air Force Base.
“Our Fairborn Rocks Scavenger Hunt is in honor of Fairborn’s 70th birthday…We were unable to hold our big birthday bash we were supposed to have back on July 4, so we were looking for a way to still celebrate Fairborn’s 70th birthday but remain socially distant,” said Fairborn Recreation Program Coordinator Molly Gross.
Partnering with the community
The Fairborn Parks and Recreation department partnered with local Fairborn businesses to hide rocks around the city. According to the City of Fairborn’s Facebook page, there are rocks hidden in all of “Fairborn’s 22 parks.”
“We partnered with all local businesses throughout Fairborn, they helped us paint 70 rocks that we hid around from Wright State to Wright Patt for everybody to hunt and find,” said Gross.
In addition to local businesses, the Fairborn Parks and Recreation department also partnered with a local Fairborn Rocks Facebook group that already hid and found rocks around the city to help promote and keep track of the scavenger hunt.
“There actually is a Fairborn Rocks Facebook group that hunts rocks scattered through Fairborn already, so we partnered with that Facebook group… and we were able to track and find those rocks that have been found already,” said Gross.
Community feedback
Gross says that the community is grateful to be able to celebrate Fairborn’s birthday while staying safe and enjoying the outdoors.
“Everybody that we’ve gotten pictures of rocks from has just absolutely loved it,” said Gross.
Local business Spark, a multi-functional coworking and meeting space, partnered with Fairborn and hid Spark rocks for the scavenger hunt.
“The [Spark] rock has not been found yet but we’re hoping it will be soon! Our community manager has been wanting to go search for the rocks. We will certainly post about it on social media if we locate it,” said Spark Community Manager Gabby Speed.
Plans for the future
This is the first scavenger hunt that the City of Fairborn has hosted, but Gross says she wants to do more in the future.
“I love anything creative, anything that makes positive memories for families and people in general,” said Gross.
Looking for the painted rocks is a great way to explore the area and enjoy the outdoors.
“Just get out and explore. If you haven’t been to any of the parks there’s lots of different parks to explore,” said Gross.
The Fairborn Rocks Scavenger Hunt will be running until Nov. 30.
