Theatre senior Margo Gellert (center) and the rest of the 2014 winning team, Team Impala. The team all bought and wore matching shirts.

For the past two summers, theatre senior Margo Gellert has allocated a week of her time to a scavenger hunt. Not just any scavenger hunt, GISHWHES (the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt The World Has Ever Seen). It consists of team members performing tasks that range from hugging a veteran to creating a swimsuit made of tea bags. Participants rack up points for the tasks completed, with the highest scoring team winning the scavenger hunt. While most high school students will usually get through a television series on Netflix in a week’s time, Gellert has achieved multiple tasks worthy of admiration.

“This year I felt like I was focusing more on random acts of kindness,” Gellert said. “My absolute favorite task this year was when I went to a children’s hospital dressed as the Cookie Monster.”

Gellert is a member of Team Impala, the winning team in 2014. She was on vacation when the week started, which ended up helping her team’s performance.

“This year, I started off at Leakycon, a Harry Potter convention. It was a huge help because I had this community of open minded people at my disposal,” Gellert said.  “I had access to people I wouldn’t normally have like celebrities and authors [such as] Scott Westerfeld, Alaina Huffman and Amber Benson.”

The winning team gets to visit Croatia for a pirate adventure with Misha Collins, an actor who stars in the television series “Supernatural” and started GISHWHES. Despite the luxury trip to an exotic locale, Gellert believes the best part of winning is getting to meet her team members.

“We all recorded our reactions when we found out [we won],” Gellert said. “We decided [we are going to] extend our trip so we get three days with Misha and the rest of the week we’re going to live together [in a rented house]. We’re going to bring recipes from our different cultures to cook for each other.”

In addition to introducing her to a supporting team, Gellert believes GISHWHES has also helped her grow as a person.

“I thought it was a good way to get out of the house. I had just been diagnosed with generalized anxiety depression disorder and I had a hard time doing things besides laying around the house,” Gellert said. “It gave me motivation and it totally changed my paradigm.”

Kyna Hogan, one of Gellert’s team members, shares the excitement about meeting the team and participating with them.

“The most exciting part for me is the fact that I’m getting to go on a free vacation to one of the most beautiful places in the world,” Hogan said. “[My team members] get me, love me, and are just as excited to meet me as I am [to meet] them.”

Gellert believes that people’s willingness to assist in helping others is what makes GISHWHES such a special and worthwhile event.

“The best thing about GISHWHES is that it brings out the best in everybody,” Gellert said.