Medallion hunters finally succeed

PRINCETON — Maybe they need to start making the clues a little harder.

For the second year in a row, it only took two clues for searchers to find the medallion in the 21st annual Citizens Great Medallion Hunt.

Sandy Jorgensen and Gena Lucas of Malden found the medallion at 11:13 p.m. Tuesday, concealed within a sign at the entrance to the building at the Princeton Recycling Center.

The two women received $1,000 in Princeton Chamber Gift Certificates, but if you divide it by the number of hours they’ve spent searching over the years, their hourly rate wasn’t that great. Lucas has looked for the medallion for 19 years. Ten years ago, the two women became friends, and Jorgensen joined Lucas in the hunt.

“It’s been a long time of hunting and searching,” Jorgensen said Thursday.

The two women didn’t take their searching lightly either. Jorgensen plans her vacation around the medallion hunt every year, and the two women, along with a number of other people, would wait at Beck’s gas station in the middle of the night, waiting for the latest clue to be delivered in the BCR.

Then the women would spend hours poring over each clue. Jorgensen said one word in the clue is usually obvious, but the rest of the words could be double meanings.

“We go through the dictionary and look up the meanings of words to see if there are meanings we don’t know,” she said. “Does it mean what it says or does it mean something else?”

Then the women would drive through town, looking at the permanent signs and keeping their eyes open for something significant.

All that hunting and searching had almost paid off before.

“We’ve been standing right next to the people as they found the medallion,” Jorgensen said.

This year, Jorgensen said they had almost figured out the location after the first clue was released Saturday. The final sentence of the clue was, “The fun’s just beginning, don’t you agree?” and the women figured that meant recycling, which is a like a new beginning.

The clue also referred to the clues being “posted” on the Web site, and Jorgensen said that usually means on or near a post.

The women headed out to hunt Tuesday night, and again began with a drive through town.

“You figure out what sticks in your heart, and what does your gut tell you?” Jorgensen said.

They headed for the recycling center, and within 40 minutes, the medallion was theirs. This time, there was no one else in sight.

The women will take turns keeping the medallion, and will split the gift certificates.

Jorgensen hasn’t decided what she will spend her share on.

“Most of it will probably go to Wal-Mart, Beck’s and Sullivan’s with the price of groceries and gasoline what they are,” she said.

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