Pondering puzzles, life and learning
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A local puzzle competition is bringing people together at 209 Broadway in Diagonal on Saturday, January 18. Beginning at 6 p.m., teams of four will be assembling a puzzle together while enjoying pizza and beverages, which all come with the $100 entry fee.
First, second and third place winners of the puzzle competition will be recognized.
Teams of four can sign up by Friday, January 17th at 4 p.m. using this google doc link or contact April Lynne Briner Hansen for help at 641-234-1114.
Professional puzzle maker and founder of Puzzle Day, Jodi Jill, has made a career out of creating puzzles for kids, teachers and fellow dissectologists who have a passion for assembling or solving puzzles.
Offering people a moment of enjoyment outside of their everyday lives, Jodi has been creating word searches, crosswords, mazes, jigsaw puzzles, and other math puzzles for over 30 years.
“Because of the way I grew up, I didn’t learn in a traditional way, so I actually played puzzles and became familiar with them to the point I could actually solve [them] fast,” Jill stated in an email to the Mount Ayr Record News.
“I was raised in a storage unit as a child and since we didn’t go to school (me and my siblings)…I had nothing but pain after this experience,” stated Jill.
Jill claims librarians are the unsung heroes of our communities. She learned to read later on in life, and several librarians made a lasting impact on her by suggesting simple books, offering books on tape, and helping her explore the world.
“Not only do they share the words, they also offer perspective and help our culture bring out the best,” said Jill in a Shoutout Social interview. “While many assume librarians are all about keeping the knowledge collected, they actually are one of the many reasons people learn more….they get to know their patrons and feed our curiosity.”
Her own passion for words and knowledge began with librarians offering her an opportunity to explore a world outside of her own.
“I will never forget the moment I was handed a coffee book with skyscrapers,” stated Jill, “I had never seen such amazing buildings and felt an overwhelming need to see more.”
She eventually traveled across the United States in search of the skyscrapers she had once seen in a book. While she enjoyed many adventures, she longed to connect with others on a deeper level.
“I wanted to share something I enjoyed with the world,” Jill stated. “As I became older, I realized if I offered puzzles to other puzzle enthusiasts, maybe I could find puzzle friends and share something I loved.”
Jill discovered she was able to create puzzles even faster than she solved them. The first time she created and shared her puzzles with the world, was with a Freebies Magazine series. From this humble beginning, a simple write up in a publication started Jill on the path to professional puzzling.
“I had hundreds of kids who wrote letters asking for my puzzles and including a self addressed stamped envelope,” said Jill in her email to the Record News. “This was before the heavy web presence and it was just me and the dog responding (almost daily) to the letters and sending puzzles.”
In 2002, Jill declared her birthday, January 29, as “National Puzzle Day” to encourage people to enjoy the mental stimulation and benefits of solving puzzles of all types.
She created a free puzzle sheet and made it available to anyone who requested it. Although her project was picked up by a book for kids and educators, a few magazines and a couple of educator groups the first year, she didn’t have as many requests as she had hoped for.
Determined to see her love of puzzles spread far and wide, she put together a free puzzle sheet again the following year and received buckets of fan mail from people of all ages.
Now celebrated every year on her birthday, Jill makes a free digital puzzle packet available online for people to download and enjoy.
Anyone can get a FREE Highlights Magazine activity kit, created by Jodi Jill, Founder of Puzzle Day, online at www.puzzledayfun.com.
While Puzzle Day was the pivotal point of Jill’s life, she realized a few years later that there wasn’t enough time for people to play, so she declared January “Puzzle Month.”
In 2025, it’s projected that there will be $3 billion in puzzle sales around the world. Sales in the United States are expected to be $1 billion alone.
“What makes me smile is that out of that billion, over half of their sales is in January because of Puzzle Day and Puzzle Month,” stated Jill. “Who knew my love of puzzles could have such an impact?”
“We, my family with my siblings, lived in a storage unit the size of a garage for over 10 years,” Jill shared in her email. “I was told over and over by my parental units I would never amount to anything, which is why they wanted to lock us up to keep us from disappointing them in public. I’ve worked so very hard to be part of the community, especially the puzzle community, to give something to our big world. I am humbled at how my puzzle day has become a world of puzzle fun for all…even strangers who become new friends who like puzzles too.”
Scientists have discovered that when we work on a jigsaw puzzle, we utilize both sides of the brain, improving memory, cognitive function and problem solving skills in the process.
