This past Friday, August 9th, was Overdrive Interactive’s 7th Annual Summer Outing. This year’s outing was held at the beautiful MIT Endicott House in Dedham, MA.
Said Overdrive’s Operations Manager, Barbara Bodell, who planned the entire day from start to finish, “It was a ‘wow’ moment when I drove up to the entrance of the Endicott House for the first time. With its sunken garden, pond, woods, rock gardens and French chateâu-inspired mansion, it was the perfect place for our summer party.”
The MIT Endicott House
The Overdrive team met for a delicious breakfast on the Endicott House terrace, after which Bodell presented the day’s main activity: a two hour long scavenger hunt. This was not, however, just any scavenger hunt. We were divided into seven different teams, each of which was given a unique 100+ page long booklet describing the team’s mission. The 25-acre grounds were divided into seven zones, each of which held its own set of discovery challenges. Scattered throughout the gardens, woods and fields of the grounds were also game challenges, such as horse shoes, bocce and corn hole. Finally, each team was assigned two unique geocaching challenges. Each task was worth an indicated number of points, and the team with the most points at the end of two hours was declared the winner.
Team Raven (Tim Massinger, Lauren McAuliffe, Hannah Friedstein and Bob Cargill)
But there was an unexpected twist: it poured. As the rain came down harder and harder, the light-hearted competition turned into a test of will power and determination. With fifteen minutes remaining in the contest, the teams were invited back onto the covered terrace to receive the coordinates of an optional bonus geocaching challenge. A few brave souls ventured back into the downpour, opting to fight for their teams rather than seek much-desired refuge from the elements.
Team Wolf’s Andrew Conner, soaking wet yet proudly displaying his team’s 3 geocatching tokens
Team Wolf won the scavenger hunt with 104 total points, but after the contest was over everyone was happy to sit down, dry off, grab a beer or a glass of wine and indulge in a delicious lunch that included clam chowder, steak tips and ice cream sundaes.
Senior Account Executive Ryan Wilensky, ready to dive into the clambake lunch
“Two years ago we had a dunk tank,” said Account Manager Tim Massinger, “but this year it felt like everyone was in a dunk tank. It was wet, but definitely fun.”
Here are some more photos from the day:
Chatting with the competition before the scavenger hunt begins
The calm before the storm (quite literally)
Enjoying breakfast on the terrace
CEO Harry Gold strikes a pose
Rewarding ourselves with a delicious lunch
Ending the day with a game of poker
