I’m Addie, native Angeleno and avid KCRW listener, and I began the Summer Marketing Internship this month. Initially, the first ever KCRW City Wide Scavenger Hunt seemed daunting… how could something this large be organized? Even more so, how would anyone have time to travel across LA in one weekend given traffic, the heat, and lest we forget- the size of the city? I had no idea what working on this event from the office headquarters would entail, but approached it with excitement as I hopped on the Expo Line early saturday morning.
Upon my arrival, mere hours after the release of the KCRW 2016 Scavenger hunt clues, the KCRW team opened up the Eventzee platform to begin a long day of approving photos and interacting with hunt participants.
What we found was truly surprising: waiting for us was an overwhelming amount of pictures submitted by KCRW listeners as they documented on their LA adventures. Teams were bouncing around East LA in the depths of the night, happy to be posing in front of The Highland Park Chicken Boy just as the sun came up. Others laughed as they played a game of leapfrog, with competitive determination plastered on their faces.
The excitement was contagious. Immediately the interns and KCRW team felt the same sense of adrenaline as if we were passengers in the car, along for the ride with each team. As each photo came in, the interns objectively approved, consulted with one another, and debated over the smallest details of each photo;wanting to uphold the fairness of the game with each approved picture.
The photos on our screens became a mural of LA landmarks and iconic locations. We felt the blistering heat of hiking the Baldwin Hills, the mist of the Echo Park Lake paddle boats, and were able to embrace all the wonderful and different sides that make up Southern California.
As a new intern, this way to engage with listeners was foreign to me, but seeing these snapshots of people I had never met before at some of my most cherished places in LA mirrored the sense of community and togetherness I have always felt in Los Angeles.
