‘Escape Room Clarion’ Offers Area’s Newest Challenge

CLARION, Pa. (EYT) – Imagine if you were locked in a dorm room in either Nair or Wilkinson Hall at Clarion University and there were only 50 minutes to escape before they were demolished.

That’s the premise for the new Escape Room Clarion, patterned after similar escape rooms in larger cities where participants are given all of the clues necessary to open the door.  Groups should include at least four people and usually average four to six people.

“It’s a series of puzzles or more like riddles to figure out,” said Hillary LeFay of Clarion MMA.  “The bulletin board in the room is a good example.  It contains some good information, but some are totally irrelevant.  If you want to get out, you can figure it out from everything that’s in there.  You don’t need any prior knowledge, and it’s not something you could study or prepare.  It is completely physically safe, and you just have to figure stuff out.”

Hillary, husband Leo (left) and friends Joy and Nick Horner, of New Bethlehem, decided to make the new attraction after visiting escape rooms in other cities. Leo has been a “gamer” all of his life, and after his first visit, he said it was what he was looking for all of his life.

Escape Room Clarion has only been in operation for a couple of weeks, but extensive testing was completed to make things run smoothly.

“This is not a scary escape room, and we don’t turn the lights out,” said Hillary. It’s a combination of a series of puzzles and mind games, but you get an adrenaline rush. Some may be skeptical about the premise going into it, but at the end of the 50 minutes, they say it was awesome.”

She had one word of caution.

“Not everyone make it out by themselves, and we open the door at the end of the 50 minutes,” said Hillary.  “It is a challenge.”

Escape Room Clarion is open Friday night, all day Saturday, and Sunday morning and evening.

“We also have people requesting weekdays at different times.  Some people looking at corporate team or skill building have requested daytime during the week for that.  We’re completely open to that or scouts are going to do it at various times.”

“We’ve requested if you’re going to have kids in the room, they book the whole room,” said Hillary.  “Kids may or not be helpful; we’ve tested it out with our kids and others.  Some of them are useful, and some of them are not.  Eleven years old and up could certainly do it, but if they’re going to be involved, we would want it to be with family members.”

The list price is $25.00 per person, but LeFay emphasizes there are plenty of coupons circulation with 20 and 30 percent discounts available, either on the websites or just asking for them at the MMA building, located at 15726 on Rte. 322, between the former bowling alley and YMCA.

Escape Room Clarion: a chance to work as a team using your wits, intuition, logic, and communication skills to solve puzzles and connect the clues to escape. Escape is much easier when you are part of a group.

Plans are being made for a special Halloween version of Escape Room Clarion.

More information and reservations or scheduling is available online at https://escaperoomclarion.com or https://www.facebook.com/escaperoomclarion/.