Photo by Deb Gau Clockwise from left, the team of Madison Gehrke, Carter Gehrke, Antonio Pina, Amelia Pina and Lydia Erb worked to decipher the clues that would help them complete an “escape room” challenge at the Marshall-Lyon County Library’s New Year’s party. The challenge was one of many different games community members could play at the party.

MARSHALL — New Year’s Eve celebrations were getting started early at the Marshall-Lyon County Library. The people gathered at the library Tuesday afternoon were ringing in the new year with refreshments, games — and lots of padlocks.

A group of kids crowded around a table in the community room, working out the combination for a box held shut with a lock and chain. When they finally got the chest open, they found only some cryptic clues written on Popsicle sticks, and a drawing of a rainbow.

“I know what’s wrong. It’s not the right colors,” Madison Gehrke said. Madison and the group started putting the rainbow’s colors in the right order, and were on their way to figuring out the next challenge in an “escape room” activity at the library’s community new year celebration.

The library held an all-ages New Year’s party on Tuesday. Activities included mini-golf, a family movie showing, a “Noon Year’s” celebration for younger children, and an escape room challenge. More than 50 people attended the event.

The escape room was a new activity this year, library employees said. Teams of participants were invited on an imaginary journey to the lost library of Alexandria.

Unfortunately, as assistant librarian Thomas Flynn explained to the teams, “You have come on a bad day.” The ancient library was starting to collapse, and participants would have to decipher clues and solve puzzles around the MLCL in order to “escape.”

While participants weren’t actually locked in a room, they would need to stay inside the library in order to complete the challenge. The puzzles involved a little bit of everything, Flynn said.

“There’s some math, and some library stuff to do,” he said. One of the early steps in the challenge had teams unscrambling a Dewey Decimal number, and finding the corresponding book on the library shelves. Other steps involved a beanbag toss, or using a blacklight to find invisible messages.

Besides the Dewey Decimal challenge, it was having to crack several different kinds of locks to reveal clues that proved tough for a lot of participants.

“There was a lock over there that was really tricky,” said Crystal Enga, after her family made it through the challenge.

“You needed to tinker with it a bit to get it unlocked,” said Anthony Enga.

While teams occasionally needed to pause, or go back to revisit a puzzle, they still stuck with the challenge. Julia and Arianna Dalle ended up staying at the party later than they planned so Arianna could complete the escape room.

“We were supposed to leave, and she was like, ‘No, I wanna open those locks,'” Julia Dalle said.

The all-ages part of the New Year’s party was something parents and families at the event said they liked.

“We love coming here,” said Melissa Haynes, who was at the library with her family. She said it was good to be able to find activities that would be fun for both the younger and older kids. “We thought it would be a nice way to celebrate, and get the kids to bed on time.”