The front doors of Natchez Coffee Co. swung open last Sunday, and feet scattered in every direction.

Hearts that normally pitter-patter away behind the comfort of a computer screen were suddenly jolted with a bolt of adrenaline. The &8220;race&8221; was on; inter-office bragging rights were on the line.

The flags must be found.

And we must find them NOW!

&8220;It must be Copy Cat!&8221; cried one person as a crowd of teammates rush down Franklin Street.

That&8217;s right, The Natchez Democrat&8217;s first Profile Scavenger Hunt got under way last Sunday and, despite the pants of exhaustion at the end, a good time was had by all.

Since Profile is the single biggest project our staff does, we usually get together before the work cranks up in earnest and have a little kick-off celebration. Nothing fancy, just a chance to have some fun before the work begins.

Profile, which publishes in February, always contains our staff&8217;s best work and tells the stories of the people who make living in this area fun.

The premise was simple: Divide up our staff into teams and have them run through downtown Natchez looking for flags that, in turn, would lead them to the next clue.

The Democrat is mostly a 24-hour operation. Someone is always here, always working.

Because of that, some people who work during the day rarely get to interact with their colleagues who work at night.

Sunday afternoon, day and night united.

Advertising representatives ran alongside mailroom specialists. Pressmen coordinated strategy with reporters. Competition was the story of the day.

When the starter&8217;s clock began, the true competitiveness of our staff became apparent.

Shoes were stripped off to allow the previously high-heeled to keep up with the brisk pace of their flat-shoed cohorts.

Visual editor

Ben Hillyer

was one of the first to realize the value of a loophole in the loosely structured rules: No one said the team had to stick together.

Out popped the cell phones and digital communication gave Hillyer&8217;s team the advantage &8212; though they&8217;d eventually finish second.

The mad dash of people scurrying about downtown streets almost certainly turned some heads as a few of the Jaywalking laws were broken.

In the end, it was the proverbial tortoise and the hare. Hillyer&8217;s group leapt out of the gates quickly, the slow and steady pace of the winning &8220;tortoise&8221; team proved victorious.

The winning team consisted of Julie Cottrell,

Julie Finley

, Artimease Frazier,

Joan Gandy

, Adam Gwin, Ryan Richardson and Shirley Taylor.

If the whole thing sounds like fun, it was. Hopefully, you&8217;ll be able to experience a bit of the fun yourself soon. We&8217;re working on a plan to share a little bit of the &8220;scavenger hunt&8221; fun with our readers. Keep reading us for more details on this.

In the meantime, see how you would have done at locating the flags hidden at downtown locations. Answers will be at the bottom of this column.

Clue No. 1: With a little luck of the Irish, you will find a great pair of shoes.

Clue No. 2: You are going where the faces up high stare at hot-air balloons all day, every day.

Clue No. 3: A XEROX copy of this clue simply will not do.

Clue No. 4: When he died there was three, but he started with four.

Eventually, all of the clues led the teams to Memorial Park where 150 building blocks were stashed &8212; egg-hunt style. The blocks are part of a theme we&8217;ll explain later.

Passersby saw our staff searching in bushes and trash cans looking for the blocks. The team with the most blocks was the winner.

Answers: 1). Former Burns Shoe Store; 2). Guest House Antiques; 3). Kimbrell Office Supply; 4). Tripod&8217;s grave at the Natchez City Hall.

Thanks to Bill and Davilynn Furlow for helping us have the perfect launching pad for the hunt and providing us with some java upon our return.

We started out with a scavenger hunt, but what we found was a lot of fun in the friendly competition &8212; oh, and a few sore legs from all that running.

Kevin Cooper

is associate publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539.

or

kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com

.