St. Pat’s Seniors Plot Great Escape

Most high school seniors can’t wait to get out of school, however St. Patrick seniors Will Chislea and Joshua Snitgen have been spending long hours at school this fall working on their capstone project. Working in groups of two, seniors at St. Pat’s are tasked to identify a, “...need in the school, parish, community, or Ionia County…based on a shortcoming in the area of Catholic Social Teaching or the Corporal or Spiritual Works of Mercy,” says St. Patrick high school principal, Randy Hodge. They then have to come up with a solution to help fill that need. Later, students report on their project to their classmates, family, and the high school faculty.

The long time friends, Chislea and Snitgen, chose to design, build, and run an escape room to bring some fun to the community as part of the annual St. Patrick Fall Fest. The duo are no stranger to creating elaborate fictional game scenarios. The friends have designed and build smaller escape room projects for their fellow students since 8th grade. Their first escape room was a table top series of puzzles. As they entered high school their creations became more and more elaborate and became a fun tradition as a part of homecoming celebrations. While previous escape rooms the pair have designed involved sheets for walls and a shoe string budget, this iteration cuts no corners thanks to generous donations according to Snitgen. They have also put in a lot of time into the project with nearly 400 man hours invested so far and finishing work still to complete.

Like all good story tellers, Chislea and Snitgen write what they know. In this case the story is set in St. Patrick School. However as good fiction does they take a mote of truth and take it in a different direction. The story starts with the factual renovations that the school undertook this past summer to make badly needed updates to the school bathrooms. That’s when fact takes a left turn into the world of fantasy where builders working on plumbing under the floors discoverd a mysterious abandoned gold mine. Exploring the mine in search of untold wealth, your group discovers that making it out of the unstable mine alive may be a more pressing concern than striking it rich.

“I’d say the story is just as elaborate as what we came up with in the past,” says Chislea. “But with all this,” Snitgen finishes his friends sentence as he gestures around him, “we can really draw people into the story.” Entering what is usually a school storage room, visitors take a simulated mine elevator to begin their adventure. The set of the escape room comprises several rooms complete with faux rock walls, lighting, and even a sandy floor to mimic a cave.

Not only is the escape room larger, and more elaborate, but they are broadening the audience by inviting in the community to participate in the fun. Starting October 14th, the escape room will be open to the public as part of the St. Patrick Fall Fest. It will also be open October 15, 16, 21, 23, 29, 30.

There is no charge to participate but donations are welcome and encouraged. At the end of the project, Snitgen says that the lumber will be resold and all proceeds from the project given to a good cause likely related to St. Patrick School, yet to be determined. You can sign up for your slot online and see if you can escape the mine! You can learn more about all the events happening at Fall Fest on the festival website or Facebook.

DISCLOSURE: When not writing for The Beacon, Jordan Smith, teaches high school science at St. Patrick Catholic School.