Quincy business battles continue with scavenger hunt

Poker run kicks off Saturday

QUINCY — Battle of the Business Coordinator Russ Harrington's lived in Quincy all his life.

But Quincy High School senior Enedina Lopez was able to turn up some city history even he didn't know.

Lopez helped Harrington as her senior project.

"She actually went around to all the businesses and talked to people there to get information about them," Harrington said. "She spent a lot of time actually diving in, she did a real good job getting the questions."

This weekend, other participants put their knowledge of the town history to the test, when the latest Battle of the Biz competition kicks off at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, starting at the Whitener-Ford Building at the primary traffic light in downtown Quincy on the corner of F Street and Central Avenue.

The event follows pingpong and pool tournaments held earlier this year, as part of the town's 100th birthday celebration.

For this event, Harrington got a little advice from his wife.

"She said something about, 'Why don't you do something everybody could do?'" he said.

Each team receives a list of 52 historical questions, with the answer being a Quincy business. A playing card is located at each of 52 different locations within Quincy city limits. Participants go until they've picked up five cards, then turn their hand in.

"They don't have to answer a question at the location and there's three cards at each location, just in case we get a whole bunch of teams, but they're all the same card, so they can't sit there, pick through and find the best card — they actually have to answer the questions and go to each location."

If several teams have the same poker hand, Harrington said he has tiebreaker questions to determine the winner.

"We wanted to just spread it out all over town," he said.

More businesses are located at the central and northern side of Quincy, but the hunt is designed so people won't be able to hit three locations right in a row, Harrington added.

"Hopefully, they'll have to drive around and go, 'Damn! I was just over there,' and go back over there," he said. "(Lopez) did a real good job of doing that too."

Because no real skill is required in a scavenger hunt, Harrington is uncertain how many participants to anticipate for the event, but he was guessing it would be the same amount as the previous two events.

"Potentially there could be a lot of teams," he said. Enough cards were made to support 30 teams. "Up to 30 teams, we'll be all right. If there's any more, we're going to run into problems."