Polio Awareness Month Treasure Hunt

GOAL

To find new polio survivors at the edge of your sphere of reachable Australians.

TASK

Each participating polio survivor is to reach out and ask 5 people in their community to perform “The Mission”, which is for them to ask 5 other people if they know anyone who had polio and is still alive (the ‘Treasure’).

RULES

The polio survivor needs to ask one person from any 5 of these categories:

  • A local business owner or retail worker
  • A person who has lived in their area for decades
  • A person who has lived in their area for less than 2 years
  • A local member of council or state government or parliament
  • A teenager
  • An immigrant to Australia
  • A person who lives more than 500km from you
  • An owner of a cat (or should we say a cat’s human?)
  • A person who drives a white vehicle

Those 5 people they ask can ask whomever they want. They only need to report back their positive findings – who they have discovered.

TRACING

The 5 people need to be re-contacted by the survivor asking, by the end of October 2020. The survivor needs to be able to follow up with those 5 people, so they will need a phone number or email or remember where they live.

Towards the end of the October, survivors need to reach out to their 5 people and see what ‘Treasure’ has been found, or who they might have heard about in the process. (A part of this activity is to increase other’s awareness and start conversations about polio survivors during this month.)

For each polio survivor they find, you obtain one piece of treasure!

Survivors can then share their ‘Treasure’ with their state network, and perhaps encourage the ‘Treasure’ to register with them and Polio Australia’s survivor register.

Copy and paste the text below and use it as your outreach message. Then, send it to 5 people you have identified using the strategies listed above:

Polio Awareness Month Treasure Hunt!

I am on the search for polio survivors like myself this month. By finding polio survivors who may not be known in our communities, I can help them to be supported in their home, healthcare, workplaces, and social activities.

I need to reach outside my usual circle of known people to do this – to find the Treasures in our community – and so I am asking for your assistance!

Your mission is to ask 5 different people: “Do you know any polio survivors?”

Polio survivors may be in the workforce, they may be relatives, they may be retired, they may have a young family. Ask around in the different circles you have contact with!

At the end of October, I will contact you to ask who you have heard about or found. Or, you can let me know as soon as you find out yourself.

Good Luck! Don’t be shy!