Waukesha 'Solve Escape Rooms' donates to charity with each successful solve

WAUKESHA, Wis. (CBS 58) -- The Solve Escape Rooms in Waukesha are focused on providing fun to groups and giving back to charity. 

CBS 58 visited the escape room on Wednesday morning, April 27 and spoke with its creator, Steve Stribling. 

Stribling opened the escape room four months ago in December of 2021. It's currently the Milwaukee area's highest-rated escape room. 

There is only one room open currently in the theme of "Capone's Cabin" but Stribling is currently designing the second room which will open later this year. Ultimately, there will be four escape rooms in the space. 

All of the puzzles and designs are locally crafted. 

If you are not familiar with escape rooms, here's an explainer. They are essentially live action games in which a team of players discover clues, solve puzzles and accomplish tasks in one or more rooms to accomplish a specific goal in a limited amount of time, usually one hour. 

The idea is to immerse the group in what feels like a real-life mystery adventure. If a group gets stuck and they cannot figure out a puzzle, there is a hint system in place. Stribling says ideally, four to six people will do the escape room together. Folks have a total of 60 minutes to complete the escape. 

The Solve Escape Room is unique in the way that it's focused on giving back to charity with each successful solve. Stribling says he wanted customers to be able to participate in the process of giving back. So on top of the adventure and entertainment experience, he layered giving to an array of charities within the process. 

"If you solve the room within the allotted 60 minutes, we donate $25 to a charity. We call it “solving it forward." We will vary those charity partners over time – some more nationally focused and some more local. Right now our charity options are the Ronald McDonald House, the Era’s Senior Network, the Alzheimer’s Association and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention," said Stribling. 

Stribling says you can make a reservation for your group to solve the escape room by clicking on their website here. 

He says Saturdays sell out quickly, so book as soon as you can. You can follow Solve Escape Rooms here on Facebook. 

The room is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. The phone number is 262-278-4060.