Baldwin Wallace’s chapter of The International English Honor Society, Sigma Tau Delta, will host a Poe Readathon on Oct. 26 and a scavenger hunt on Nov. 2 for the BW community. Both events will provide an opportunity for the community to connect and have fun while staying safe during the pandemic.

“The scavenger hunt is a literary-themed event which will send students around a limited area of campus, solving clues in order to complete the hunt and win a prize,” said Mary Simmons, co-president of Sigma Tau Delta.

The scavenger hunt will be run by Simmons and Hanna Walker, vice president of Sigma Tau Delta.

Simmons hopes for a good turnout and will allow teams to play in “groups of two or three, thus accounting for social distancing, while also allowing the possibility for remote students to join a team by calling or Zooming into a team.”

Simmons said, “The hunt will focus on wider gothic literature, featuring works such as Wuthering Heights, Dracula, and Frankenstein.”

The scavenger hunt will happen on Nov. 2, though the time has yet to be determined. It is estimated to take about an hour. The location of the hunt will be primarily around Marting Hall and South Campus. There will be advance registration for the event.

As more details are determined, Simmons said they “will be spread via email and other methods of notification.”

The Readathon is a fairly new tradition that started three years ago by the English and Creative Writing Department. Dr. Ana Boe, professor of English and Sigma Tau Delta’s advisor, said the Readathon “cultivated the kind of interdisciplinary exchange of ideas that college is all about” and “is an event in which people come together to read [the same] book.”

Boe added that “in years past, we’ve had 100-120 people stop by the Readathon across the hours that we run it.” Since Zoom is more accessible, Boe hoped that more people might be involved this year.

During the Readathon, participants will get to read Edgar Allan Poe’s greatest works.

There is no fee to attend and an hourly raffle will be held to award a prize to a participant in attendance. The Poe Readathon will occur on Oct. 26 from 3-7 p.m. on Zoom and can be accessed at https://bw-edu.zoom.us/j/98341840145?pwd=cXUxREx5eEFqVUtGNnF5ZjBHMVgvdz09.