Page 6 October 26, 2017 TORRANCE TRIBUNE
TerriAnn in Torrance
Mortuary Mystery: South Bay’s First Non-Profit Escape Room in Torrance
By TerriAnn Ferren
Are you a mystery fan who enjoys the
likes of Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle, James Patterson, John Grisham or
Sue Grafton, where you figure out the clues
as you test your intuition and puzzle skills?
Well, do I have a surprise for you! The
Volunteer Center in Downtown Torrance
has created the very first non-profit escape
room in the South Bay, entitled Mortuary
Mystery. Can you hear the creepy music
playing already? Since I had no knowledge
of how these escape room puzzles worked,
I ventured into Downtown Torrance and
visited with Sara Myers, President/CEO of
the Volunteer Center.
Simply put, an escape room is a room
where you and a team of maybe four to six
people voluntarily agree to be locked into,
and together you interact solving clues,
puzzles, mathematics and hints of all kinds
to find the solution to the puzzle--which is
the key that gets you out of the room. It is a
real-life problem of being locked in a room
where you work together to get out within
a certain period of time.
Sara Myers was born to Steve and Beth
Wilson at Little Company of Mary Hospital
and grew up in Torrance, graduating from
West High School. Her mom, Beth Wilson,
served on the Torrance School Board and
worked at the Torrance Library as a librarian.
This year, Sara’s nephew, Nyle Wilson
who just turned five years old, started school
at Towers Elementary, where Sara attended,
and had his first field trip to the Torrance
library where Sara remembers checking out
her books long ago. Sara smiled and said, “It
is all coming full-circle. [We are] definitely
a Torrance family through and through!”
I asked Sara how she got the unique idea
for this very successful fundraising escape
room, and she told me, “It’s [escape room]
pretty unique. To our knowledge, we are
actually the first non-profit in the country to
attempt this.” Sara told me that the popularity
of escape rooms first started in 2007 in Japan
and spread to Europe, coming over to the
United States in 2012 and really taking off
by 2016. I learned that escape room locations
all across the United States are listed online.
Sara told me when she travels, she checks if
the city she is visiting has an escape room
nearby. “A normal person has probably done
between 15 to 20 rooms – they would be
called an ‘escape room enthusiast,’ which
means they enjoy this hobby and they do it
on a regular basis…but my brother, Matthew
Wilson, has actually done upwards of between
two and three hundred rooms. He’s been on
the news on the East Coast and has been like
a beta tester. They had a Washington, D.C.
room, and he and his wife were like testing
it and they were on the news. He is the one
who got me into this.” Wow, this can be a
great challenge for individuals and groups
interested in honing their communicative
and investigative skills.
Sara told me that she and her two younger
brothers, Matthew and Luke, have always
enjoyed spy games and puzzles, so it was
no surprise when her brother Matthew (who
now lives in Virginia) introduced her to her
first escape room in Downtown Los Angeles.
Sara explained, “We went to a room that is
actually owned by Russians. We showed up
and they had thick accents and they took our
cell phones and took our keys and locked us
in this room. And it was late at night. And
I always joke, you know this is what your
parents tell you never to do.” Sara laughed
and then confessed, “If he had not been with
me, I wouldn’t have known what to do, or
how to do it.”
Sara told me you must figure out the
problem, whatever that may be, so you
can exit the room in a timely fashion. In
the room there can be a combination of
word puzzles, magnetic clues, mazes, math
problems, actual puzzle pieces, or it could
be things you haven’t ever thought of, like
finding clues in paintings in the room, or
matching symbols. At this point I was beginning
to think if I were put into an escape
room, I would never get out--but Sara assured
me that I would.
She explained the escape room is usually
done with a team of four to six people.
And teams that join together regularly get
better and better as their experience in escape
rooms grows. That makes sense. Sara told
me it is great for team building. She took
her team from the Volunteer Center to an
escape room in Marina Del Rey and said,
“You learn to appreciate each other’s talents.
I can tell you I would still be locked in a
room in Marina Del Rey if it were not for
my employees and their different ways of
thinking and looking at problems. You have
60 minutes, so you have to work very quickly
together and there is a lot of stress. There is
a great example [of working together] in our
very first room where someone was in one
side corner and they are like, ‘I think I need
diamonds for this puzzle’ and they happen
to say that out loud. Then in a completely
different part of the room, somebody says,
‘I’ve got diamonds.’ If they haven’t communicated,
they wouldn’t have known [it
was a clue] and we could have wasted a
lot of time.”
Sara went on to say the game sharpens
skills in communication, reading instructions
and following through. The Volunteer
Center has set up their very successful
fundraising escape room in the basement of
their building--a former mortuary (perfect
for this sort of event). Their escape room
is very difficult, garnishing compliments by
escape room enthusiasts who say they have
been pleasantly surprised, considering it is
a “fundraiser room.”
Sara and her staff have had the enjoyment
of witnessing how groups figure out each
puzzle and how they work together. Does
the person who knows the answer actually
share that knowledge? Sara said she and
her team have gotten a lot of compliments
from veteran players of escape rooms for
one particular puzzle never seen before.
They were excited about that compliment,
considering they had never done anything like
this before. Sara also told me that participants
have even looked up at the security cameras
complimenting the hosts and saying, “This
is a really great puzzle.”
In the main room, where the experience
begins, there is a leader board that lists the
top groups that have figured out the secret and
unlocked the room. At number one sits a team
of five that exited the room with 12-and-a-half
minutes remaining, plus two clues. “You are
monitored and, especially if it is your first
room, you can get clues. There is no limit
to the number of clues you can get,” added
Sara. Well, that gives me hope. I learned this
is the only escape room in Torrance, but what
makes the Mortuary Mystery Escape Room
special are many things. Among them is the
fact that the Volunteer Center was once a…
mortuary. People have visited the Torrance
Escape Room from as far as Santa Clarita,
Irvine, etc. and they not only enjoy the game
of the Escape Room, but they visit our local
restaurants and businesses.
The Volunteer Center is a sterling nonprofit
that helps our community with their
Operation Teddy Bear Program, Food for
Kids Program, Adopt-A-Family Program,
Volunteer Recruitment Services, and Court
Referral Community Service Program. They
also offer a Corporate Volunteer Council,
Youth Volunteer Connections Program, and
VIVA (Volunteer, Involvement, Voice, Action)
Program. Truly President/CEO Sara Myers
is continuing and building on the foundation
and legacy left by her predecessor, former
President/CEO DeDe Hicks.
“It took us nine months to plan out and
build…we are thrilled because the real value
of this has been making so many more
neighbors aware of the Volunteer Center
and what it does,” said Sara. “When they
come in and find out about our Food For
Kids Program and our Operation Teddy Bear
Program--and we have had neighbors walk
over from two blocks away and they are new
to the Volunteer Center and its mission--that
has been incredible.”
Interested in visiting and figuring out the
Mortuary Mystery South Bay Escape Room
at the Volunteer Center in downtown Torrance?
Tickets must be purchased online in
advance at www.volcenter.org/escaperoom.
Hurry, because the Mortuary Mystery South
Bay Escape Room closes October 29! If you
miss participating in the Escape Room, there
will be a party on November 9 and when you
purchase a ticket, you get a peek inside this
very special room. Oh, and Happy Halloween
(creepy music still playing)… •
Sara Myers, President/CEO of the Volunteer Center.
The Historic Volunteer Center located in Downtown Torrance.
Problem-solving signs. Stairway down to the entrance of the Mortuary Mystery Escape Room in the basement of the former mortuary.