Submitted photo The Huisken family of New Ulm, who won the Heart of New Ulm second community scavenger hunt, positioned family avatars at the scavenger hunt stations, to show they visited them. These avatars are shown at the Kiesling House on Minnesota Street, which survived the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.

NEW ULM — The Heart of New Ulm announced that Team Jilly Jelly won first place in its recent second scavengerhunt and received $100 in Chamber of Commerce dollars. Team Bock 22 won second place and received $50. Both teams successfully completed all 20 missions to finish the hunt. A total of 39 teams participated.

Team Jilly Jelly is actually the Huisken family of New Ulm. They also participated in the first scavenger hunt last May.

During the hunts, participants were encouraged to walk or bike and used the Goose Chase app, which directed them to “missions,” or various historical places around New Ulm. Teams then completed each mission by taking a photo as proof that clearly showed they visited the site.

“We are so excited about winning the scavenger hunt,” said Rebecca Huisken. “When I told the kids in the morning, it was all they could talk about all the way to school/daycare. Our one-year old doesn’t really get the idea of prizes yet, but since her brothers talked about Goose Chase, she did, too.”

Jilly Jelly used a unique signature on their photos to prove they completed each mission. They creatively positioned a little homemade figurine family (made from toilet paper tubes and other cardboard tubes, buttons, yarn and fabric scraps) in each photo.

“The ‘dolls’ are sort of our family avatars,” explained Huisken. “We made them in April, when we were all stuck at home, based on something my son’s (then kindergarten) teacher sent as ideas for projects for all our stay home days.”

“The local history lessons learned through the Scavenger Hunt have been fun for our six-year-old,” Huisken added. “He wanted the entire plaque read out loud to him, asked great questions about many of them, and still references things he learned about New Ulm as part of this.”

“History isn’t my strong point, so it’s fun to see him developing curiosity on this. We also like to get out and walk as a family and see different areas of town, and if we get exercise and learn at the same time, it’s a double bonus,” Huisken said.