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Sheridan teen develops interactive scavenger hunt with Photofind.me

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When she was just 16 years old, Alicia Thoney had a goal to develop an interactive program or application that would engage community members and businesses alike. 

An active student, Thoney was president of the National Honors Society, she was a member of the diving team, participated in both indoor and outdoor track and was co-leader of Sources of Strength. In the little free time she had left, Thoney developed Photofind.me

The concept is simple, photos of various locations, known and unknown landmarks, businesses and other oddities throughout Sheridan are posted on Photofind.me. Community members visit the site and then attempt to find the locations and businesses in the photo. Participants then take their own photo of the marker and upload it to the site. 

A. Thoney

Businesses sponsor “quests” – a series of photos dealing with specific subject matter or location. Once a participant has located, photographed and uploaded all of the landmarks in a quest, the first two or three participants – depending on the quest – to finish can win a gift card or other prizes from the sponsoring business. 

Currently six different quests are posted to the site with interesting subjects to hunt. The Sheridan County Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring two of the quests. One will take participants on a quest to find the store fronts of various Sheridan restaurants and the second will send questers looking for photos of business logos.  

Photofind.me is an interactive way to explore Sheridan with some quests requiring participants to look at historical buildings and brand new businesses a little closer to get the photo they need to complete their quest. 

Thoney began Photofind.me as an independent study while still attending highschool. She wanted to engage residents of all ages in a fun activity that allowed people to get out and explore Sheridan. 

A. Thoney

She began with “wireframing”, outlining what the page would look like on the web. Then she began to write hours of code. First the “front” of the page or the webpage that participants actually see and interact. Then she coded the “back” of the page, sections of code that control and direct the front. Her biggest challenge was writing the code that instructed the front and the back to work together, Thoney said.  

Through a partnership with Oatware, Thoney has been able to launch Photofind.me and watch her idea become a reality.   

Thoney’s effort and hard work won her the 2019 Congressional App Challenge for Wyoming, winning her a trip to Washington D.C. to attend the #HouseofCode reception with Rep. Liz Cheney. 

With more quests coming soon Thoney would like to see Photofind.me eventually expand to include other municipalities in the state and maybe one day, launch a statewide quest for vacationers.  

But for now, she’s happy gaining more sponsors and developing more quests here at home and showcasing Sheridan and it’s businesses.  

Thoney will study Computer Science at the University of Wyoming in the fall semester. 

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