PITTSTON – You sneak into a restricted area at Hogwarts Library wearing your invisibility cloak. Once in, you take off your cloak, then find out it has been locked away in a strong box and there’s no way out without that cloak. You have several clues to unlock the box in 45 minutes to make your way out of the library before being discovered.
Pittston Memorial Library held a Harry Potter-themed Escape Room Call for adults and children over 10 years old on Oct. 19, 21 and 24.
“I did an escape room before with my teen book club so I thought it be a fun way to get lots people in the library,” said Noelle Kozak, Pittston Memorial Library’s Young Adult Program coordinator. “We decided to get families involved so a lot of families have been coming in with their kids to escape out of the room. Harry Potter is a big appeal so that’s why we picked it.”
Escape rooms are a popular fundraising trend where many organizations play. Kozak said the Pittston Memorial Library’s event was free to the public.
“People spotted the event in the newspaper and the I honestly thought because it was Harry Potter when we released it initially, we were going to have some kind of immediate response but we didn’t until 24 hours before we were set to go,” Kozak said. “We ended up with 34 people total.”
According to Kozak, about half the participants were able to figure out all the clues to get out of the escape room.
Greg and Leah Hunter, of Swoyersville, and their children Braeden, 11, and Aubree, 9, registered to play on the last night after discovering the event on the library’s Facebook page.
“We do murder mysteries and escape rooms all the time,” Leah said, admitting how difficult this one was. “It was challenging and we didn’t escape.”
Nine-year old Aubree Hunter was excited when she initially got into the room.
“When it first started, I was excited, but until the end it was like, ‘No,” Aubree said when she realized they were not going to escape.
“I thought it was great,” Greg said. “Too bad we didn’t get out.”
