GREENSBORO, N.C. — Throughout COVID, we’ve had all kinds of shortages. Everything from toilet paper, cleaning products, chips for new cars and electronics, as well as puzzles. Really.
Puzzles became a thing all around the nation, with so many people stuck at home. Stores couldn't keep them stocked, so a retirement community in Utah created a puzzle exchange.
The exchange has grown from 27 puzzles to 700, all of them organized by the number of pieces, the manufacturer, and themes like nature, food, and high art.
"It's like the blue light special at Walmart. There's a line of people just buzzing as fast as they can, making sure they get the puzzles that they want,” said Lindy Hilton of the SunRiver Puzzle Exchange.
"It's just another thing to bring people together, no matter what their views are,” said Rob Hilton, Lindy’s husband.
But what about puzzles with missing pieces? It's bound to happen.
"They'd bring back the pieces that surround that missing piece so I have a pattern to go by," said Rob.
Using small cutting tools and paint, Rob recreates them.
a labor of love for one purpose of making the pieces of the community fit together, literally.
Just one box is never enough for Sherril Rasmussen. For the past year, she's been loading up jigsaw puzzles from the puzzle exchange. One, in particular, made pandemic isolation more bearable.
"It was a 2,000 piece, under the sea, all kinds of fish and it took me forever," said Sherril Rasmussen, a Utah exchange puzzler.
There are puzzles for visiting grandchildren, and one member's wife who has dementia.
"Sometimes she doesn't know who he is, but she knows how to put a piece in the puzzle," says Lindy.