Three St. Vincent High School students teamed up to win the first Republic-Monitor Medallion search for 2025 and accomplished the job in 20 minutes.
Seniors Kaitlyn Buerck, Callie Clements, and Mallory Patrick arrived at the Republic-Monitor office at around 4:50 a.m. and had to wait until the doors opened for newspaper sales with clues for the medallion search to begin at 5 p.m. The girls had attempted to be the first to find the precious medallion for three years running but finally accomplished their goal last week.
In addition to having their names and faces appear in today’s paper, Buerck, Clements, and Patrick were presented a $100 check by Publisher Robert Cox to divey up three ways.
Asked what clue helped move them in the right direction, Clements said, “The song and then the one talking about like happened twice a year. We were kind of like, ‘Oh, that's definitely about the eclipse.’ So, then we started looking up things, but for the eclipse, we went to the park center.
"We looked at the glasses, and then we found out that there was the sundial [on the county courthouse grounds] that went with the clue about the phone. We're like, ‘We have to go check the square.’ So, we looked for like 20 minutes, and we were ready to give up. We’re like, ‘No it's gotta be here.’ So, we kept on looking and finally found it.”
The girls found a nearby bush that fit the clue and quickly came up with the medallion while other people were scouring the area with no luck.
“We all started screaming and jumping up and down,” Clements said. “The people who were also looking at us thought we were crazy. They were people from our school, so it made it better. They all got mad and went to go get breakfast.”
While all three will be away from home next year attending college, they didn’t give up on the idea of searching for the medallion again.
“We may come back years from now and try to do it as a team again,” said Patrick.
