McPHERSON, Kan. — 24 years separated one woman from her first All Schools Day Button Hunt find and her second, while another woman picked up what was her second find in as many years. Danielle Claassen of McPherson found the medallion for the 2025 button hunt, while Jo Unruh of Galva identified this year’s virtual hunt location.
Claassen found this year’s medallion Tuesday. It was hidden in a space between the walkway and wall where a plaque is mounted at Farmers Alliance Pavilion in Wall Park. This is Claassen’s second medallion hunt win, after finding the medallion in 2001, which was hidden at the I-135 rest area, hunting with her father.
Claassen, who returned to hunting this year, said she initially had been focusing on Lakeside Park, based on one of the early clues. The Tuesday hunt clue led her to Wall Park.
“The clue that came out today talked about a business, so I was thinking some kind of statue or plaque,” she said after finding the medallion. “The number two kept coming up in the clue, so for some reason I thought of the statue with the two busts on it,” in referencing the Mingenback sculpture that is part of the pavilion.
She plans to use her $250 prize to celebrate with her three children and husband, “I’m not sure what yet,” Claassen said.
Unruh, who for years has worked with Connie Grennan on the button hunt, said in past years they thought the McPherson Valley Wetlands (this year’s virtual location) would be a good location to select for it.
Unruh, who was attending a granddaughter’s basketball tournament in Topeka over the weekend, said Saturday’s 2nd clue led her to that guess. “When some things came up that was weather dependent, kind of sounded rural, being able to see the stars and galaxies, kind of pointed us in that direction.”
Button Hunt chair Lucky Kidd noted this was about the quickest identification of the virtual location since it began. “I had thought about the wetlands as both a virtual location and for the medallion in the past, which had been guessed in prior hunts,” he said. Kidd added if a person had looked up an information sheet on the Kansas Wildlife and Parks website, you would be able to solve several of the clues we used.”
Claassen and Unruh each received a $250 cash prize.
Kidd thanked this year’s Button Hunt sponsors, Bluestem Pace and First Bank Kansas, for their support of this event, which saw an increase in hunting license sales from past years. Stewart’s Sports and Awards has also been a long time supporter of the hunt, donating the medallion.
He added, based on input from hunters, there will be a couple of changes made in next year’s button hunt, which will be announced at a later date.
2025 ASD CLUES AND EXPLANATIONS
