Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us have found ways to keep ourselves entertained, from reading new books and colouring to new exercise programs — things we never seemed to have enough time to do before.
For one group of women from Newmarket and across York Region and Simcoe County, puzzles have been keeping them busy this year since they connected through a local puzzle swapping Facebook group.
The group started last April and now has more than 280 members. Members share photographs of their finished puzzles, while offering them up for trades.
Tunde Nyarfadi-Duncan, a Holland Landing resident, said she started the group because it was a free, easy way to provide entertainment during lockdown.
She notes how puzzles can be expensive, but this way, "one puzzle can go a long way" by passing them on to others.
Most recently, the group came across a 140-square-foot, 40,320-piece Disney puzzle that they thought would be fun to tackle together, apart.
The Ravensberger puzzle features 10 colourful scenes of different Disney movies, with an estimated completion time of 600 hours.
Ten members were up for the challenge, and have split the puzzle into 4,000-piece sections to complete individually at home. Once finished, the group plans to meet in person later this year (pending pandemic restrictions) to put it all together.
On Friday night, the ladies held a virtual meeting where they unboxed and sorted their sections of the puzzle.
Each member chose their own piece of the puzzle to complete: from Newmarket, Lindsay Mercedes, The Lion King; Yulia Arden, Dumbo; Teresa Power, Peter Pan; Jen Mather, Snow White; from East Gwillimbury, Tunde Nyarfadi-Duncan from Holland Landing, Cinderella; from Keswick, Krista Kroon-Spick, Fantasia; from Maple, Roxana Caraiani, The Jungle Book; from Bradford, Amanda Belanger, Beauty and the Beast, Katherine Pressnail, Bambi; and from Innisfil, Catherine MacPherson, The Little Mermaid.
"I picked the Dumbo piece because it's my favourite Disney character...I have a little Dumbo in my car, he sits right by my head rest," said Arden.
Arden works full time and is also a part-time student taking practical nursing.
Mather joined the puzzle group last spring. After giving birth to her daughter and being stuck at home on maternity leave, she found comfort in completing puzzles.
"My love of puzzles started when I was young, that was always our family activity and in my adult years, whenever we would go to a cottage, I would always bring a puzzle up to complete and leave it there for the next guests," she said.
The largest puzzle Mather has done to date is 2,000 pieces, so the thought of completing a 4,000-piece puzzle on her own she says is both "elating" and "madness".
"If you asked me a year ago, what the most exciting part of this is, I would say to see the completed puzzle in real life to see how big it actually is...but now I think the most exciting part for me is to just be part of a group of wonderful people and see how we’ve created this little virtual community," said Mather.
Pressnail, who joined the group after moving from Toronto in October, said she has a "puzzle addiction," with her favourite puzzle brand being Ravensberger.
"Even before the pandemic I've enjoyed buying puzzles and books," she said. "For me, they represent time I will have in the future for myself."
Pressnail has a busy job and enjoys doing puzzles as a way to relax and unwind.
"I'm excited for the final reveal when we all meet up to put it together, as well as getting to bond with the other women through the process," she said.
Kroon-Spick joined the group at the start of the pandemic, and had never really got into puzzles before.
"I never really gave it a try as I always thought they were too frustrating and time consuming, but when I found myself with lots of extra time on my hands, I decided to give it a try," she said. "I always try to buy things second hand to save perfectly good items from the landfill and to save some money, and when I saw the group I thought it would be perfect for my new hobby."
Belanger, a teacher currently teaching remotely, said doing puzzles give her a nice break from screen time.
"The pandemic has been hard but with school shutdowns, I was able to save my drive time and could also work on puzzles over my lunch, so I got back into the hobby of puzzling," she said. "It has been really nice to connect socially with other puzzlers."
The women will be checking in with one another over the next few months with updates on their progress. Once COVID restrictions are lifted, they hope to meet in person to put it all together.
To learn more about the local puzzle group, visit their Facebook page here.
