Tiger Quest Lets Magical Adventures Teach Character Lessons

On Friday night, goes from being a place of education to a place of magic and education as part of Tiger Quest, a family-fun event for students.

Sponsored by the Family School Partnership, the quest takes a wizard-related theme and uses it to teach lessons about character and other personal qualities, said Cari Ann Mills, the organizer of the event and a school board member. Adventure stations will include crafts, a climbing wall, a fortune teller, self-defense lessons and other activities.

"All these little activities, once you put it all together, teach different lessons for the students," Mills said. "Students will think, 'When I was climbing the climbing wall, I learned something about fairness.' "

Originally, Mills, a former science teacher at , wanted to do an FBI or CSI theme for the event but realized that might be too old for some students ("All they could really do would be find fingerprints," she said). She picked the fantasy adventure idea after a friend told her about MaqiQuest, a live-action magical game based at a family resort in the Wisconsin Dells.

"This way, we could still do science stations," Mills said. "We wanted it to be an exploration, too."

For events like this to be successful, volunteers are the key, and the FSP is always looking for parents who want to help out, Mills said, adding that information on how to join can be found on the D157-C website as well as the district's "virtual backpack" page.

"We have to depend on volunteers. Without them, these things get canceled," she said. "I could have everything good on paper, but if i don't have the people to back me up, it wouldn't happen."

Tiger Quest

When: 5:30-8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4. Each quest takes about an hour.
Where:
Food: and will be offering meal deals and coupons.