Chapel Hill Neighborhood’s ‘I Spy’ Game Fosters Fun, Community During Outbreak

Caela O’Connell and her family were excited to move into a bigger home in the Ephesus Elementary school district after being in Chapel Hill for six months. But she says they didn’t have long to settle in before the COVID-19 outbreak began to disrupt their daily lives.

“We moved about four days before we really started social distancing,” says O’Connell. “[It was] lucky for us, but also quite a surprise.”

O’Connell, who is an assistant professor of anthropology and in the Environment, Ecology, and Energy Program at UNC, joined the neighborhood listserv to learn more about the community. As more and more people began to stay at home, she also began to see a fun, family activity be discussed.

“One thing people have been doing is creating an I Spy game,” she says. “There’s someone who designed a digital map and you can email them to tell them what your I Spy [items] are in your yard or windows. Neighbors can be dispatched with this map and try to find these things based on their description.”

Among those items O’Connell and her three year-old son have spotted are hidden lawn ornaments, items in windows, balloons and messages. But she says the community engagement hasn’t stopped there.

“There’s been a large level of neighborhood decoration,” O’Connell says, “with children decorating the stop sign posts and chalking friendly messages to delivery drivers or postal workers, those who are helping our daily lives run.”

Neighbors have even put up holiday decorations and the elementary school teachers have driven through caravan-style to wave to their students who are doing online learning.

O’Connell says she’s not only encouraged to see these actions as a member of the neighborhood, but also as a researcher. As an environmental anthropologist, she examines how humans and their environments change over time, as well as how communities respond to disasters.

According to O’Connell, the coronavirus pandemic has presented unique challenges to how communities can cope with the ongoing spread and being isolated. She says the method of social distancing, while effective in slowing the spread, goes against how communities typically come together in times of crisis.

“This pandemic does introduce a really new, difficult element of having to keep distance from those you’re closest to, those you want to care for, those you want to help out or receive help from,” says O’Connell. “That has been a real challenge that makes it different from the many other disasters I’ve [studied].”

While the outbreak in North Carolina is likely far from over, the methods people are creating to stay engaged and connected are examples of adapting to the environment around them. Instead of a hurricane or tornado, people can still be outside and, O’Connell says, play games like I Spy. She says the community effort is a great activity to engage not just kids, but all ages living in her neighborhood. And despite it feeling like a game, it’s an activity that’s helping foster that sense of community during unusual times.

“Humans use play to learn, humans use play to engage with the community and society they’re around,” says O’Connell. “Think of a child playing at school and the games there. In this I Spy game, we’re really seeing people adapting with how to connect with one another, how to offer solace and some joy and [how to] recognize that we’re in this together.”

O’Connell says she hopes the development of these neighborhood-wide activities seen across the world ultimately highlight the importance of having these connections whether there’s a disaster going on or not. She says she believes while her neighborhood was already close, this could make it become even closer in time.

“It’s pretty common for communities after disasters to come together more,” she says. “Many of them do have some elements of that closeness that carries on for a while after the disaster. My hope is that we continue some of this whimsical connection throughout the neighborhood moving forward.”

Featured photo via Caela O’Connell.

 

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