By Danielle Nelson

*This article is posted on The Express Times website.

Maddie Fahan and Avery Jackson sing along with their teammates, Kelly Sposato, Deja Washington, Kerry Donohue and Kelly Loughney during their karaoke song. Lafayette College seniors participated in Tour de Ville 2014, a photo scavenger hunt, on May 20, 2014, as part of senior week festivities. The students faced puzzles, riddles and a karaoke contest as they spread out across campus, Downtown Easton and College Hill. Photo Credit Sue Beyer | For lehighvalleylive.com

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Before they walk across the stage on Saturday, seniors from Lafayette College got to look at Easton one more time.

Groups of three to six students ventured into the city today for Tour de Ville 2014, a scavenger hunt where soon-to-be graduates used clues to solve riddles about the city and the college. The Leopards received points as they spent close to three hours finding and taking photos of some of Easton’s historic buildings and statues.

The Bachmann Publick House, Easton’s oldest building, the Christopher Columbus statue, Modern Mesa and the State Theatre were just some of the places students visited. Along their journey, students were able to taste free samples of different flavors of ice cream from Cheeburger Cheeburger.

Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr., store owners and customers along Bank Street were on hand as groups of students performed karaoke and danced outside the School of Rock. Students chose from 10 musical selections such as “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor, “My Girl” by the Temptations and songs from the Backstreet Boys. As they performed, Lafayette President Alison Byerly and Larry Stockton, the chairman of the music department, judged the performances.

“I think it’s good to see so many kids out enjoying their last week out together by doing something fun like singing together,” Byerly said. “I think there is a lot of musical talent and there is a lot of enthusiasm.”

While the purpose of the scavenger hunt was to get students to spend more time in the city, the students were judged during their performance on their talent, dynamics and the spirit of the group.

One of the performers, Kathryn Best, said she was a bit surprised that their performances would be judged.

“I thought it was going to be like ‘Oh good. You win.’ But they actually score us,'” Best said.

Senior Charles Vincent said he was impressed that the college was able to get “someone from the music department to judge really bad karaoke.”

Some students said the hardest part of the scavenger hunt was trying to find the buildings.

When the event ended and the scores were counted, the winning crew received six tickets to see musicians Tegan and Sara in June at Levitt Pavilion at SteelStacks in Bethlehem.

Jessie Northgrave, who was on the winning team, said one of the exciting parts of the tour was going to the Crayola Experience and having her teammates color her as a human crayon.

Senior Carlos Barata, an organizer of the scavenger hunt, said it’s the first time the college has collaborated with the city to put together this event during senior week.

“Students go down to Easton to dine but they don’t spend a lot of time exploring, getting a taste of everything that is there — even in terms of history and the culture of it,” Barata said.

© Herculean Stars, Inc. All rights reserved.