Families from Shriners Children’s Salt Lake City participated in a private event at Boardwalk Puzzles in Lindon on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. The event allowed patients and their families to work together on jigsaw puzzles within a massive factory warehouse.
The collaboration was organized after Boardwalk Puzzles social media manager Deserae Dorton, a former Shriners employee, reached out to the hospital to suggest a partnership. Shriners recreational therapist Laura Hollingshead visited the factory to coordinate the event, noting the importance of creating environments where children with prosthetics, leg braces, or wheelchairs can feel safe and act like children without being stared at.
While rain prevented some individuals from making the trip south, many attendees successfully completed puzzles. The event focused on social benefits, allowing children to engage with parents and siblings through a unique activity.
Boardwalk Puzzles founder Joseph Ogden noted that puzzling offers specific cognitive and physical benefits. According to Ogden, the activity helps connect brain neurons and improves memory skills, facial recognition, hand-to-eye coordination, and other aspects. He described it as a tactical, physical, and disconnected activity that can be scaled in difficulty, ranging from 100-piece puzzles to 2,500-piece puzzles.
The event concluded with families having completed puzzles to take home as a collective achievement. Hollingshead stated that the finished products serve as a way for families to look back on a shared accomplishment.
