NDCAS App Quest ends Youth Week with a bang

Rain or sun, nothing was going to stop Narrabri and District Community Aid Service (NDCAS) from putting on their first App-Quest adventure challenge, rounding off youth week with a bang.

Luckily the weather was onboard and held strong for the 71 participants and 16 teams who participated in the quest, starting at The Crossing Theatre, and spanning around town.

“We had feedback from the community on youth completing tasks around town and saying it was great to see them all smiling and laughing and having fun together,” said community development manager Kayla Nehrkorn.

“It even looked like a couple of teams had joined forces and were helping each other out.”

In honour of Youth Week, contestants from the ages 12 – 19 completed video and picture tasks and challenges solving math questions, trivia, and riddles as they competed for the main prize of a Why Leave Town gift card.

The unique quest was created by NDCAS and Narrabri Shire Council in collaboration with Brisbane’s Total Team Building, to encourage youth to get out into the community, band together, and have fun with their friends, while experiencing something totally different.

After receiving a lot of feedback from parents wishing the kids had more activities to participate in, NDCAS set themselves the challenge of delivering something the kids had never done before.

ABOVE: Best dressed team, Johanna Gordon, Cadence Dowdell, Natasha Gordon, Sienna Elder (dinosaur) Elodie Labonte and Kelly Herden.

“After reviewing the photos, it was great to see so many teams being imaginative with the challenge, all the teams had a different perspective of each task,” Kayla said.

Challengers went between Collins Park, the council building, the community garden, and the main street and were given two hours to visit as many GPS-activated hotspots around town.

Activities included the mannequin challenge, air guitar, moustache challenge, optical illusions, broomstick photo challenge, and many more.

The app quest was the resulting success from a year’s labour of love for the planning team, and facilitated in collaboration with the Narrabri Shire Council, Namoi Care Connect, and the NSW government.

“We would love to make this an annual event, but in order to consider this possibility we would need the support of the community to make this happen again,” Kayla said.

“Often youth don’t like the fear of the unknown. So now that so many of them have experienced it and had, we think that they will encourage their friends to join in next time.”

Wee Waa was also strongly represented, with Namoi Care Connect sponsoring a bus for the four teams of 20 challengers from the area that came to Narrabri to participate in the App Quest. Winning teams and best-dressed teams were presented with a $45 Why Leave Town gift card and team trophies for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. There were also prizes for a wooden spoon team, and lucky door prizes such as a custom Youth Week shirt or WLT gift card.

The event also received some great feedback from the challengers, who were thrilled to be out in their community, participating in the challenge, with one quester saying, “I loved that we could do things with our friends around Narrabri, solving challenges together.”