Puzzle It Forward: One kid's quest to solve the jigsaw shortage

Earlier this month, Hudson Wright, 11, had an idea.

"We started out with this thing that we used to do on Halloween," the Bee Cave resident said. "It's called You've Been Boo-ed. It was basically when you ding-dong-ditch someone, and you leave a bucket of candy at their house."

Once someone had been "boo-ed," Hudson said, they would be responsible for paying it forward and surprising someone else with candy.

Hudson decided to apply this same model to another treat: puzzles.

With his mom, Kendra, he drafted up a flier for Puzzle It Forward. In a poem explaining the idea, they wrote, "Puzzles are great for the whole family / but they're almost as hard to find as TP!"

Kendra said Target and Amazon have sold out of many of their puzzles, as other families look for activities to stay busy.

When their family finishes a puzzle, they spray the puzzle and box with disinfectant, print out a flier and drop off the puzzle on a neighbor's doorstep. They hope others follow suit.

Kendra said she and Hudson have talked about how it can feel hard to do something helpful during this pandemic.

"Some people are out there creating vaccines or doing things that only grownups can do, but I thought it was cool as his mom that he's a kid and he's doing what he can do," she said.

Hudson said he likes doing puzzles with his parents.

"I feel really good that this is taking off and everyone's happy, and this is creating happiness and bringing families together," he said.

About a week after coming up with the idea, Hudson received a surprise delivery.

"We actually got puzzled," he said. "There was this puzzle sitting there [on our doorstep] with the same note we created."

The Wrights created this flyer for the Puzzle It Forward project. (Kendra Wright)(Kendra Wright)