By Della Hasselle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The creators of a public scavenger hunt that has participants suggesting improvements for Lower Manhattan will be awarded for their outdoor game at the annual "Games for Change" festival in Greenwich Village this month.
Suzanne Kirkpatrick and Nien Lam will receive the "Real-World Games for Change" award, an honor that comes with a $5,000 bonus. The Games for Change festival at the NYU Skirball Center will open on June 20 with a special appearance by Al Gore.
Kirkpatrick and Lam's invented a scavenger hunt called "Commons," which will be part of this year's River to River Festival, one of the city's largest free festivals, which takes place Downtown.
Designed for more than 200 participants, the scavenger hunt makes participants scour Foley Square and areas around Battery Park City, the Financial District, Lower Tribeca, and around the Brooklyn Bridge, looking for ways that the city could do a better job.
On June 19, the participants will work in teams, coming up with problems to report and even solutions that would make their neighborhood improve through attention and resources, according to the River to River Festival website.
"Show your city some lovin’," the site says. "Vote on the best reports and improvements, and see what’s most popular in the hood."
The designers of the game will present the gamers' findings the following Tuesday at the "Games for Change Festival" and advocate for making games that inspire social change.
