Whether for your own use or something you share with Vital Communities to add to our online library of Quests, creating your own Quest can be a rewarding activity to do on your own or with a group.
Guidelines for Creating a Quest
Thank you for your interest and enthusiasm in adding to our body of Quests! Valley Quest’s mission statement and goal are to help community members cultivate a sense of place – that means a growing connection to the lands we live on and the communities of which we are part.
The experience of taking a Valley Quest is somewhere between a guided tour and a scavenger hunt. Quests have traditionally been created by Upper Valley community members, using a set of clues and other directions to lead participants towards a Quest box or other discovery, like a vista, new information, or time to reflect. Quests might take participants around to learn unknown histories and explore different ecosystems. How you design your quest is up to you; the possibilities are endless! All the places included in your Quest must be open to the public so that anyone and everyone can follow the journey you create.
The quest you create will invite people to pay attention to things they might not have noticed before to help them learn more about the place you’ve chosen. We also hope that during the process of creating a Quest you can learn something new or see the same place from a new perspective. The process of making a quest can also bring you closer to a place you haven’t spent much time in. The steps below are meant to offer lots of questions and elements to consider at different stages in the process of quest-making.
Step 1: Decide on the Quest location
Are there specific places – towns, parks, forests – that you have a particular connection to? Pick a beloved place that you visit often, or somewhere new to you that you want to explore and learn about. Consider how people will get there and for whom the Quest would be accessible:
- Is there parking nearby?
- Is the location near a public transit bus stop?
- Is it accessible to get there using a bike?
- Can it be wheelchair-accessible?
- Do people need specific kinds of gear, outdoor expertise, or fitness levels to participate?
If possible, craft the quest so that it’s accessible to people with varying needs and levels of outdoor experience or include different options for participation. For example, a quest at Balch Hill in Hanover can include exploring the trails, sitting on a bench at the top of the hill, or finding a sitting spot near the base of the hill to experience the place slowly and quietly.
Step 2: Take some time to think about your goals and objectives for the Quest
- What would you like people to learn or notice while they’re on the Quest?
- What would you like the “mood” to feel like – playful, meditative, informative, adventurous?
Step 3: Learn more about this place or topic
Delve into the history of your place before the last few hundred years. Many of our local histories start after white settlers arrived in the Upper Valley and forcibly displaced the Abenaki people from their homeland ( N’dakinna, or “dawn land.”) Is your place included in any Abenaki stories? Does it have an Abenaki name or evidence of Abenaki, such as stones left from fishing weirs in streams, plants that were used for sustenance or medical healing? Reach out to talk to elders or other community members who might know more about the place than you do. What stories do they have to tell? What knowledge do they have to share? There are many resources to learn more about local histories and relationships, especially those of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in the Upper Valley.
What ecosystems is the place a part of? Take note of overlapping communities and uses – for example, an old building might be an important historical landmark, and perhaps there is also a family of birds who make their homes in the rafters. Try and pay attention to the ways that places are shared by many different communities and notice the ways in which those communities impact the place.
Step 4: Consider what form you’d like the clues to take. Many quests are written as long “riddles” with clues that eventually take the participant to the Quest box at the end. However, this is just one possibility! If you love writing, consider crafting a poem that leads participants around the place. Another idea is to draw a map with directional markings or include sketches of trees to draw peoples’ attention.
Step 5. Time to create, pick your box location, and write the clues!
By now, you’ve likely spent significant time in the place and have given thought to what elements you want to highlight in your Quest. Some suggestions of what to include:
- Local history and culture, especially highlighting Abenaki presence and history
- Identifying species and how all the many organisms in a place are related to one another
- Questions to prompt reflection and thoughtful engagement with the place, including our responsibilities to care for our local environments and communities
- Find a place to hide the Quest Box that will hold a stamp, information and a logbook for participants to write in.. Valley Quest will supply the box, logbook, and pencil. Be sure to get permission before placing your box on public lands orin municipal buildings, a non-profit, or business. Consider making a personalized stamp for participants to use – we have all the supplies!
Step 6: Send Valley Quest what you’ve created! Get in touch by email at valleyquest@vitalcommunities.org. We will work with you to review your Quest, make sure it’s ready to be published on our website, provide a Quest Box, and arrange for a box monitor.