Central Florida puzzlers find community through puzzle swaps

Winter Garden’s Jojo Monetti will glue her completed puzzles and have them framed and mounted on the wall of her home. 

Monetti, like many puzzlers, began diving into the world of puzzles in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has become her source of relaxation and one of her most enjoyable hobbies. 

For years, she had been buying her puzzles from Goodwill and thrift stores. If she found a puzzle missing a piece, part of the intrigue was creating a piece out of cardboard to fit the space and painting it to match the colors of the puzzle, making it complete. 

But even shopping for puzzles at Goodwill and thrift stores can become expensive, and she often found this hobby to be isolating. 

Photo by Liz Ramos

“None of my friends wanted to come over and put together a puzzle; everyone wants to grab drinks and stuff,” she said. “It’s definitely a hobby I really like, but it’s also kind of felt isolating, because it’s not a popular thing.”

While attending a Central Florida Puzzles puzzle exchange Sunday, Feb. 22, at West Oaks Branch Library, she found a community of like-minded individuals. 

The back of the library was filled not only with more than 100 puzzles but also at least 70 people all there with a love for puzzles. 

“It feels good to find your people,” Monetti said.

Central Florida Puzzles is a Facebook group that started during the pandemic with the first puzzle swap in October 2021 at a Starbucks in Winter Park with 12 people. It wasn’t long before the group grew to 35 people, and the swaps were hosted at Rollins College. Once again, the group outgrew its space, and now it has puzzle swaps at two flagship locations: Alafaya Branch Library and St. Luke’s United Methodist Church. 

The first puzzle swap at St. Luke’s was held in August 2022. 

Over the past four years, Central Florida Puzzles has grown to almost 6,800 people, with people from all over the U.S. and at least eight countries. While some members find the nearest swap to their homes to participate, others travel around the state. 

Rhonda Camen, one of the administrators of Central Florida Puzzles, said she’s seen people from Tallahassee drive to West Orange County to participate in the swaps in the area. She also spoke to a woman who was visiting from Argentina and wanted to bring puzzles home as they weren’t as available in her home country.  

Central Florida Puzzles celebrated its 250th puzzle swap at West Oaks Branch Library with a Presidents Day theme, honoring 250 years of the U.S. this year.

Photo by Liz Ramos

It is required for each participant to bring in at least one puzzle that is in good condition. In no time at the Ocoee swap, there were more than 100 puzzles, ranging from 50 pieces to 2,000 pieces, placed on tables for people to peruse before the swap began. 

The swap began with a raffle. Afterward, Marcea Oetting, dressed as Abigail Adams for the Presidents Day theme, called numbers like Bingo, but instead of marking numbers on a card, each number represented a person. Once someone’s number was called, the puzzler was able to go search the numerous puzzles and pick one to take home.

Puzzlers waited in anticipation for their number to be called, some cheering when their number finally came up. 

Between rounds, Oetting asked trivia questions related to presidents and Adams’ husband, John Adams. 

After four rounds of picking puzzles, it was a free-for-all of the remaining puzzles. 

Monetti donated five puzzles to the swap and walked away with eight to add to her collection. 

“I feel like I found a life hack to save money, because now, instead of going out and buying puzzles, I can swap, and I feel like I have some pretty cool finds today, too,” she said after the swap.

The puzzles varied in themes from landscape and scenery to animals of all kinds to hobbies to U.S. themes to Disney and other pop culture phenomena. 

Ocoee puzzlers and sisters Lucie McHan and Maria Santos focused on the puzzles that were at least 500 pieces, finding ones that matched their favorite theme: landscapes. 

McHan walked away with a beach puzzle, adding to her collection of beach puzzles she has at home. 

Many puzzlers said the hobby is relaxing and gives them time to take their minds off whatever is happening in their lives and solely focus on the pieces in front of them.

“It’s the search for all the pieces in the box,” McHan said of her favorite aspect of puzzles. “I search and search until I find the right ones. I like searching.”

Santos will work on puzzles before she heads to bed for the night as a way to relax her mind.

Throughout the swap, which lasted about one-and-one-half hours, people chatted with each other, sharing their finds and getting to know each other, creating a community of puzzlers.

Photo by Liz Ramos

Libraries such as West Oaks Branch are a common place to host the swaps. 

Shasta Quinn, the librarian at the Ocoee library, said the puzzle swaps are a way for the library staff to welcome the community to use the space for social connection. 

“Everyone is welcome at the swap — all they need to do is bring a puzzle — and it turns what is normally a solitary pursuit into an opportunity for connection and fun,” Quinn said. “The puzzle group gets a place to hold their swap, and at the same time, it brings new people to the library.”

At the West Oaks Branch, there is a community puzzle table as a way to put the library’s puzzles to good use. Quinn participated in the swap as a way to receive new puzzles for the community puzzle. 

“Puzzling has many cognitive benefits, and having people put a puzzle together collectively over a period of days or weeks creates a sense of collective purpose and connection,” Quinn said.

McHan and Santos were surprised to see the wide range of ages of participants. 

Camen said generations of families attend the puzzle swaps, showing puzzles are for people of all ages. She has seen grandparents participate with their children and grandchildren. 

“I’m sure we’ll get to know people as we come more often,” McHan said.