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Shake things up exploring your community and “Walk to Win”




Stay-at-home orders might be in place, but residents are still encouraged to get outside and stay active.

As such, why not spend these next few weeks exploring your community and win some prizes at the same time?

That is the driving philosophy behind “Walk to Win”, an online scavenger hunt that encourages people to explore the world around them and get some cool payback thanks to local sponsors.

It is the brainchild of Mark Kolb of Brainy Games, a mainstay at the Aurora Farmers' Market who sells not only his own-designed laser cut games and puzzles but builds apps to support the community.

Walk, Shake and Win is based on geolocation where most of the world has been mapped out in plots of three square-metres. Each square has three unique words associated with it in up to 100 different languages.

“This is a technology used by car companies and hundreds of others are using this technology, so I decided why not use it and make a game out of it?” says Mr. Kolb. “What I am challenging people to do is get out and walk, take their cell phone with them, stop while using the app and see what words come up. Then, shake your phone or tap a letter and start collecting words. As you collect words, you get points and when you get a lot of points you can win a prize.”

Words are pinned to specific locations around Town and locations include not only the historic Yonge Street core but locations in nature as well, including stops in Shepherd's Bush sponsored by Sport Aurora. 

“It is just a fun activity. I like to walk, so I figured, why not have some fun while you're walking?” says Mr. Kolb. “I am thinking of extending it so there might be some secret caches of words that you have to find depending on where you are in, say the Arboretum or one of the trails in Town. If you stumble across it, you will get extra bonus points. Let's see how it goes this month and I will write some more code into the game. 

“Just go out and explore your parks and trails and see what you can come up with. See who wins the most points. I am giving away prizes for each day on the weekends. I might give away 20 prizes and see how it goes.”

To take part in the challenge, visit walk-to.win. 

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Post date: 2021-04-16 00:41:41
Post date GMT: 2021-04-16 04:41:41
Post modified date: 2021-04-16 00:41:44
Post modified date GMT: 2021-04-16 04:41:44
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