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Community Corner

Scavenger Hunt Teams Test Their Knowledge Of Johnston

Hosted by the Johnston Historical Society, the contest is in its second year.

The held its second annual Scavenger Hunt on April 9, as teams took the challenge to get the highest total points by setting out to find and photograph as many items as they could from the society's list.

Corresponding Secretary Chris Martin said this year's contest — which started at 11:30 a.m. at the Elijah Angell House on Putnam Pike — was larger than the first, held in 2009. The 2010 hunt had originally been planned for last August, but was rescheduled because of torrential rain.

"We had 11 teams this year," said Martin, who added that in 2009, there were eight teams.

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Kim Calcagno, coordinator for the scavenger hunt, explained there were a variety of different items, 120 total, to find — ranging from the very common, like an apple tree, to the very specific, like the plaque in memory of Alfred A. Ricci, Gunner's Mate 3rd Class, which was worth 10 points.

The teams were only allowed to use one device during the four-hour scavenger hunt, either a camera phone or a digital camera to capture the images — and no downloading images from the internet was permitted.

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Team members could also earn bonus questions worth two points each. The questions were about former Johnston landmarks, or their transformation and what currently exists in its place.

Among the questions were: What is now in place of the Pike Drive-In? and: What now exists in the former johnston Theatre ?

Three Italian gift baskets went to the top three winners; a jelly and jams basket was awarded to the fourth place winner, with fifth place also winning a gift basket

Team 41, consisting of former Johnston resident Leah Labrecque, new member Eric Georgio, and residents Joanne O'Neil-Kane and Chris O'Neil, took won first place for the 2011 scavenger hunt, with 223 points — a follow-up to their 2009 victory.

"The first year we had 140 points," said Leah Labrecque, adding the first place prize in 2009 was a gift card to Barnes & Noble book store.

Team Catatonics took  second place with 212 points compiled by Steve and Karen Silverbush and Shanna Wells.

"This was our first year in the scavenger hunt, " said Shanna Wells. "We had fun and we'll do it again, even though we got caught up in traffic on Atwood Avenue."

During the afternoon on Saturday, the town , at the corner of Atwood and Memorial Avenues.

Third place went to team Contillo with 193 points; team Adam won fourth place with 186 points; and fifth place honors went to team Allison, 177 points.

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