Photo courtesy of Margo Gellert

Gellert’s mother, Andrea Gellert, dresses as a squid eating calamari to prove that you are what you eat.

In Florida, theatre junior Margo Gellert wanders Wal-Mart looking for a ring toss to take to a dog park, dressed in medieval attire. While people stop and laugh at her, a mother shields her daughter’s eyes, telling her not to go near Gellert.

In Pakistan, Tayyaba Nasim, 22, and her sister visit a cow farm and strut around like proud fathers, half dressed as men and smoking cigars while scandalized people stare at them.

In Vienna, Austria, Tamara Nagelstrasser, 19, poses on her bed while her friend sews toast onto the G-string she is wearing.

These are not just young adults doing crazy things for attention, or just to pass the time during the summer. These are three of the members of Team Impala completing tasks for The Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen (GISHWHES), a three time Guinness World Record breaking scavenger hunt hosted by actor Misha Collins.

“[Mr. Collins] is a part of this charitable organization called Random Acts,” Gellert said. “He uses GISHWHES as a way to gather his fans to do crazy, wacky, life-changing things that they’d normally never do, while also doing random acts of kindness such as donating to a diaper drive, serving salad at a soup kitchen, or buying a meal for a homeless person.”

Thousands of participants come together to form international teams for the scavenger hunt, and document their completion of tasks through pictures or videos. After filling out a five-page application and having a Skype interview with the team leader, Harry, Gellert joined Team Impala.

“At first I was nervous that it was going to be super serious and organized, but we were all a family in no time,” Gellert said. “We played board games together online, watched YouTube videos together, called each other when we had bad days, and we still do. We all still talk on a daily basis.”

GISHWHES pushes its participants to go out of their comfort zones and beyond the boundaries of social norms to create different forms of art. According to the website, GISHWHES believes that “‘normalcy’ is overrated and that true ‘living’ can be found hidden under the rocks of community artistic creation and in acts of artistic sublime public performances.” Nasim, Gellert’s team member from Pakistan, experienced this first hand.

“Pakistan is pretty reserved country, so two girls doing that random a thing in a cow farm was shocking and people were staring. From where I come from, being ‘proper’ is considered very important, especially for girls,” Nasim said.  “There are so many restrictions. For the first time in forever, because of GISHWHES, I felt free. People staring and judging didn’t matter because there were people all over the world doing the same things. It might be confidence building and amazing for everyone, but for me and my sister, it was an experience that changed our lives.”

Participants, also known as GISHWHESHEANS, had to complete tasks that required the help of others, such as getting GISHWHES decals on a military aircraft or having at least six men in military, police or fire uniforms holding a team member over their heads as they sunbathe on a beach chair.

“One of my items was to sell an eBook to the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. I contacted him and he emailed me back “Who doesn’t love a scavenger hunt?” He even sent me the eBook he bought as a gift,” Gellert said.

Even though Gellert was the only one on her team from Dreyfoos, she had help from other students to complete her tasks.

“I was actually so surprised and overwhelmed by the amount of people who just wanted to help. People I barely speak to read through the entire items list and offered advice on certain tasks,” Gellert said. “When I first called Melanie Duran to ask about borrowing her scuba gear for an item, she said it’s ‘too weird’ and hung up on me. [She] reluctantly gave in, and even said she’d wear it for the photo since the gear could hurt my back if it didn’t fit right. By the time we were driving home from the dance studio, she was smiling ear to ear asking if she can be on my team next year. ‘What’s next on the list?’ She had a complete change of heart.”

Gellert hopes to get more students from school involved in GISHWHES next year, as a way to express art that everyone can participate in.

“There’s an item for everyone at this school whether it’s visual art, theatrics, band, dance and this hunt is all about photography, videography and communications,” Gellert said. “Since the hunt took place during the last week of summer this year, it was hard to utilize the talent we have at Dreyfoos, which was a total bummer when it came to items such as the flash mob, the marching band and items involving big groups of people.”

Last year, GISHWHES broke the Guinness World Record for the Largest Scavenger Hunt with 14,580 participants, and it broke the Guinness World Record for the most charitable pledges of Acts of Kindness with 93,376 participants.

“If you’re thinking of completing GISHWHES next year, you need to be prepared to disregard your dignity, put on that kilt and throw that 10 foot asparagus as far as you can. Literally,” said team member Hannah Davies, 17.