Escape rooms across Cornwall are coming together for the first Cornwall Escape Room Challenge. The event will support Quiet Connections CIC.
Escape Rooms Cornwall in Penzance, Locked in Escape Rooms in Camborne and Escape Time in St Ives are offering people a chance to discover a different way to connect. For every booking made between August 17 and September 17, £1 will be donated to Quiet Connections CIC.
Quiet Connections CIC brings together people who are introverted, shy, highly sensitive or experiencing social anxiety. Over the past year, its community has taken part in three escape room trips. Many were trying an escape room for the first time, and some were also meeting the people they were playing alongside for the first time.
Quiet Connections founder Hayley Stanton said the appeal has been less about escaping the room and more about what happens when people are trying.
“A lot of social situations start with the expectation that we’ll talk,” she said. “When you’ve only just met somebody, that could put quite a lot of pressure on someone who’s a bit quieter and people often worry about knowing what to say.
“An escape room gives you something else to focus on together. Someone spots a clue, somebody sees a pattern, someone else notices the thing that everybody has walked past five times. People start working together before they’ve had time to worry about making conversation.
“We’ve seen people who have only just met become a team very quickly. You don’t have to be the loudest person in the room to have something valuable to contribute.”
That became particularly clear when five Quiet Connections community members were among the first people to try Escape Rooms Cornwall’s 28 Pasties Later experience in Penzance last year.
Some had only just met and had never tried an escape room before. One participant summed up how quickly the team gelled: “We met one minute and were holding hands the next!”
Then the group spent the next 90 minutes searching, puzzling and working things out together and they laughed about their experience over drinks after.
Quiet Connections groups have also taken on all three escape rooms at Locked in Escape Rooms in Camborne.
There had been some nerves before the game. One participant was offered a quiet walk-through of the space first, giving them the chance to see what to expect, ask questions and understand how they could step out if they needed to.
Alex Hart of Escape Rooms Cornwall, who started the Cornwall Escape Room Challenge, said: “Quiet Connections felt like a really natural fit because so much of what they do is about helping people connect with other people.”
Hayley added: “We’re really pleased to be part of the challenge. If it encourages somebody who’s a little more shy or quiet and might have thought ‘that’s probably not for me’ to reconsider, that would be lovely.
“As I’ve discovered myself, you don’t have to be loud or quick to have something useful to bring to the team. There’s plenty of space for thinking and noticing in an escape room.”
For every booking made with one of the three participating businesses between August 17 and September 17, 2026, £1 will be donated to Quiet Connections CIC.
People who book during the challenge will also enter a draw to win a private escape room game. Games can be booked during the challenge period for an available date later in the year.
Cornish Escape Rooms Join Forces to Support Quieter Residents