by Peter Bodley
Managing editor
Betty Vandenheuvel has been a successful medallion hunter since she was a child growing up in St. Paul.
Betty Vandenheuvel (third left), the finder of the Coon Rapids Snowflake Days medallion, is presented with the $750 prize by Terry Peterson (second left), who hid the medallion and wrote the clues. Also pictured at the presentation Saturday during the Coon Rapids Snowflake Days children’s carnival at Epiphany School are 2011 Miss Coon Rapids Megan Ehlert (left), Rockee the Raccoon (Kate Zeigler), the Snowflake Days mascot, and 2011 Miss Coon Rapids Outstanding Teen Emily Freeh (right).
Saturday, Vandenheuvel collected a $750 prize for finding the 2011 Coon Rapids Snowflake Days medallion.
The Snowflake Days medallion hunt prize is sponsored annually by attorney Tom Klint of Midwest Disability, Coon Rapids.
This is the first time that Vandenheuvel has found the Coon Rapids Snowflake Days medallion, but she has been successful in other medallion hunts – three times in Forest Lake and three times in North Branch, she said.
Indeed, after accepting the Coon Rapids prize, Vandenheuvel was heading up to North Branch in a bid to find that community’s medallion again.
Medallion hunt clues first appeared on the Coon Rapids Snowflake Days website Jan. 29 and new clues were posted daily by Terry Peterson, who hid the medallion and composed the clues.
Vandenheuvel found the medallion in Acorn Park the morning of Feb. 5.
She is from Isanti, but no stranger to Coon Rapids because her fiance Paul Allen is a resident of Coon Rapids and so is her best friend Sandy Miller, who ironically lives near Acorn Park, according to Vandenheuvel.
Vandenheuvel’s initial search was near the compost site in Bunker Hills Regional Park, but the Jan. 30 clue, “Just north of ten … ,” pointed her in another direction, she said.
Bunker Hills “did not feel right” and when searching for a medallion “it has to feel right,” Vandenheuvel said.
A clue earlier in the week said the medallion was in a park, but it was the Friday, Feb. 4 clue that took Vandenheuvel to Acorn Park.
“The clue said the medallion was located east of the post office,” Vandenheuvel said.
The Coon Rapids Post Office is at 102nd and Foley Boulevard, while Acorn Park is due east at 102nd and Cottonwood Street.
Vandenheuvel was not the only medallion hunter in Acorn Park the morning of Feb. 5, she said.
But from a couple of earlier clues Vandenheuvel focused her search by the fenced area in the park, Vandenheuvel said.
The first clue posted Jan. 29 referred to “orange” and the fence was orange in color, while another clue used the word “beyond,” which Vandenheuvel said she took to mean the far end of the park.
Vandenheuvel was correct; she found the medallion close to the fenced area.
It took her about 20 minutes of searching and digging, she said.
She was alone in her search. Her fiance, Allen, a Minnesota National Guard member who served a tour of duty in Iraq two years ago, was at Guard training, Vandenheuvel said.
And her two children, 14-year-old twins Dylan and Dion, who often accompany her on medallion hunts, were not with her on this occasion.
Vandenheuvel was excited to win the $750 prize, she said.
She will use the money to fix her truck. “All our vehicles have broken down this winter,” Vandenheuvel said.
Vandenheuvel works for Maytag in maintenance and is also a volunteer driver for the Second Harvest Food Shelf.
She learned to hunt for medallions at an early age. Her parents always searched for the St. Paul Winter Carnival medallion and she and her brother soon became involved, Vandenheuvel said.
“I have been hunting for medallions all my life,” Vandenheuvel said.
She had a brief time away from medallion hunting when she was living in the western part of the country, but when she returned to Minnesota, Vandenheuvel resumed the hunts.
“The key to finding medallions is the tool you use,” Vandenheuvel said.
In Vandenheuvel’s case the tool is an ice pick.
The ability to sort out the clues, called “noodling,” is also vital to a successful medallion hunt, Vandenheuvel said.
The Coon Rapids Snowflake Days medallion hunt is named after Marlowe McCrady, the late Coon Rapids business leader who was one of the founders of Snowflake Days in the 1960s.
The medallion is always hidden on city property and the finder has to have a Coon Rapids Snowflake Days button in order to claim the prize.
Peter Bodley is at peter.bodley@ecm-inc.com.
Copyright 2011 ECM Publishers.