Finding the Watercade medallion was a combination of luck and a string of happenstances that occurred last week for Ali McGraw and Maggie Gaulrapp.
“Honestly I didn’t think about (the location) very much,” McGraw said. “It was a coincidence and everything kind of came together.”
McGraw, who works as Maggie Gaulrapp’s personal care assistant, spent Tuesday afternoon with Maggie. Typically the pair plays at Maggie’s favorite park — Memorial Park on the east side of Lake Ripley.
But on Tuesday, Maggie didn’t want to go to her favorite park. Instead, Maggie and McGraw decided to switch up their routine and spend the afternoon playing at Prairie Park.
When McGraw’s mom heard about the change of plans, she mentioned that was the location of the Watercade medallion.
“The reason we thought Prairie Park was because of the Little (Free) Library and the bike path,” McGraw explained.
The first clue listed the initials of people — H. Lee, S. King, J. Blume, E. Carle — which McGraw suspected were names of authors.
The second clue mentioned books on how to fix a car and ride a bike, which McGraw thought referenced the bike path running through town.
McGraw went to the park with little hope of finding the medallion.
“There were people here before us and I kept thinking, ‘Well if they didn’t find it, I’m not going to find it,’” McGraw said.
McGraw searched near the edges of the bike path and around the green Little Free Library. She stumbled across the medallion when she searched in the closest bush to the Little Free Library.
Her initial reaction to finding the medallion was disbelief.
Those who find the medallion are awarded $500. McGraw and Maggie plan to split the money. McGraw will put her half towards tuition at College of St. Benedict for her sophomore year.
“The other half Maggie and I are going to use to do fun activities together,” McGraw said.
Last week, the duo visited the A maze’n Farmyard in Eden Valley. In the future they plan to visit Valleyfair, Bounce Adventure in Waite Park and Chuck ‘E Cheese.
Maggie is most excited to go visit Chuck ‘E Cheese again.
“I want to do it again,” she said with a grin.
Copyright 2016 Litchfield Independent Review/Crow River Media/Media News Group.