Salina Arts & Humanities announces that the winner of the 2025 Festival Medallion Quest (FMQ) is Maddie Lytle.
On Tuesday, Lytle and her mother, Susan Schreiber, took their lunch break together to search for the Medallion. The most recent clue, “clear your mind,” led them back to the trail behind the YMCA and nearby Central Kansas Mental Health, a spot they had searched multiple times this past weekend with clues like “behind brown and white” which they thought might represent a storage shed along the trail.
Today, while they searched, the pair said they could tell that the area had been searched by other questers. Lytle noticed a branch had fallen and the wood looked different than the rest of the wood in the area. She flipped it over and saw a Twix wrapper that appeared to be connected to the wood. She thought, at first, that maybe it was a geocache. She took the candy bar off the wood and peeled back the corner, revealing a message. It was then she realized she had found the Medallion.
Lytle found the Medallion around noon on Tuesday, May 27th. She has been searching with her family for years and is the 19th winner of the Festival Medallion Quest, which was started in 2009 by the Smoky Hill River Festival. “My family has a group where we share clues and strategy, and we work on the Quest together,” said Lytle.
The Quest took six days and twelve clues. The clues were shared online at festivalmedallionquest.com and posted outside the Eighth Street Salina Arts & Humanities office doors, and on Facebook.
The 2025 Medallion was hidden along the river trail that runs along the back of the YMCA. What appeared to be an unopened Twix candy bar was secured in the underside of an aged log. Inside the wrapper was a fake chocolate “QUEST” bar, along with a golden ticket with directions for the winner to claim their prize, also hidden inside the wrapper.
The 2025 Quest winner receives a prize package of $1,000 in cash and $2,000 in Gift Certificates for shopping at the River Festival 2025 Art Show, including East, West, and Demonstration artists’ booths. Other prizes include four Festival admission wristbands, a complimentary on-grounds VIP parking pass, an invitation for four to the Thursday evening Art Patron Premiere party, and four River Festival 2025 T-shirts.
“One of the best parts of the Medallion Quest is that participants get to be artists for a week. Creative problem-solving is fun and everyone gets to see parts of the town they might never have seen,” said Salina Arts & Humanities Executive Director Brad Anderson. “The Festival Medallion Quest celebrates our community's patronage of the arts and is a neat way to hype the upcoming Festival Art Show. It’s fun to see how Questers explore, and the excitement and competitive nature of the hunt is palpable,” said Visual Arts Coordinator Crystal Hammerschmidt. Over the years, families have searched side by side, solved riddles, and endeavored to find the Medallion. It marks the official countdown to the River Festival.
The Smoky Hill River Festival, now in its 49th year, is the flagship event of Salina Arts & Humanities, a department of the City of Salina. The River Festival draws many local residents and
out-of-town guests each year to Salina to enjoy outdoor art installations, the Art Show with over 120 visual artists, three stages of live entertainment, the Artyopolis kid’s area, Festival food, and more. The River Festival generates approximately $3.5 million in revenue annually within the local community.
Advance-price, four-day Festival Wristbands are available until late Tuesday, June 10, at 40 Salina locations and in 18 other regional cities. Children 11 and under get in FREE.
For more information on the Festival Medallion Quest or the Smoky Hill River Festival, call 785-309-5770 or visit riverfestival.com.