Students converged in McQuiddy Gymnasium Monday evening for a unique and “puzzling” event sponsored by Lipscomb’s Campus Ministry team.
Puzzle Mania, the brainchild of Women’s Campus Minister Caroline Morris, invited students to put their heads and hands to the test to solve 500-piece puzzles as quickly as possible.
Morris said she found inspiration for the event over Christmas break when she was “puzzling” with family.
“I just wanted to create something super fun and random this semester for students who love to puzzle,” Morris said, “something totally different than anyone’s done before.”
Morris added that events like Puzzle Mania and the new bi-weekly Wednesday night devotional called “Recess” are meant to remind students that they can spend time with God in an informal setting.
“I think it’s really good to not always be thinking we need to be having devo, but just having fun with God sometimes,” Morris said.
While prizes included a $75 gift card to The Cheesecake Factory, $50 to Edley’s Bar-B-Que, $30 to Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams and $15 to Sprinkles Cupcakes, many students said they came to Puzzle Mania for other reasons.
Freshman Jared Peters, a member of the men’s track team and team Keepin’ the Piece, said he and his twin brother assembled a group because they grew up doing puzzles together as children.
“Back when we were in elementary school, Austin and I did a lot of puzzles, so we wanted to bring that back here in college,” Peters said. “We wanted to test our [track] team’s chemistry.”
Junior Elyse Youngdahl called a group of her friends together to create team Threat Level: Midnight for puzzle night. She said they saw the event as an opportunity for an interactive campus experience.
“We thought we would be pretty good at puzzling, but we soon realized we were terrible at it,” Youngdahl said. “It’s probably the most intense thing I’ve ever attended on campus.”
Several members of the Lady Bisons softball team also attended the event to bond beyond the field.
“We’re always doing softball so we wanted to do something different,” junior Kasey Gibson said. “And we’re really competitive.”
Overall, students agreed that the event provided an enjoyable way to build community over friendly competition.