Puzzler's Exchange

Building Quality of Life: Piece by Piece

What People are Saying

"My puzzle tables are exploding! Bring more puzzles!"  T.H.

"The residents are really enjoying the puzzles and are working them constantly! The puzzles are beautiful and continue to be a fantastic addition. The puzzle exchange has been a huge success!"  M.L.

"Our residents just love having new puzzles they haven't seen before (and staff too)! We feel so honored to be a part of such an amazing program that provides so much opportunity for our residents. Thank you!" N.S.

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Did you know that your brain loves goal-oriented, diverse, novel and complex-enough activities? These types of activities increase Dopamine (a powerful feel-good hormone). Not only that, when done in social settings, the benefit of these type of activities is even greater because when we feel connected to others Oxytocin (another powerful feel-good hormone) increases. 

Putting together large-piece jigsaw puzzles with others provides an opportunity for those living with, and managing, challenging health conditions to tap into their own internal feel-good hormones at a time when they are most needed. Among other benefits, each puzzle piece becomes a significant social, goal-oriented, diverse, novel and complex-enough task, as each attempt is made to place a puzzle piece in its rightful place.

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The Story 
Puzzler’s Exchange began after one of our founding members experienced a concussion due to a car accident. While she was told the concussion was "mild" the effects were anything but mild ~ fatigue and PTSD prevailed, complex cognitive tasks and conversations were difficult at best, social activities became virtually nonexistent, and the use of her eyes for her most treasured activities (crocheting and reading) was impossible. While she was able to recover her ability to do her previous activities to a fairly good extent, the recovery was tenuous, and managing the ongoing effects (along with all the appointments) was constant and exhausting.

It was early on during the most difficult days that we discovered large-piece jigsaw puzzles in hopes of finding a reprieve from the challenges and difficulties. Not only was she able to do these puzzles during a time there was so little she could do, but her agitation calmed tremendously as she focused on working them. The beauty was that they were available whenever she wanted, day or night, 24/7/365, whether having a good day or bad, and for whatever amount of time she was able to focus on them. We immediately recognized these benefits and bought over 50 new large-piece puzzles!

When she moved to senior living, she put her puzzles out in common areas and soon found that others would join her, discovering another benefit - a social outlet that worked for her - a quiet 1:1 activity that allowed her to determine how much she could do at any given point in time. The puzzling group that formed completed over 80 large-piece puzzles in less than four months! From her personal experience with these puzzles, and seeing the benefits for others, we realized the need for those living with, and managing, challenging health conditions to have a rotating supply of large-piece jigsaw puzzles from which to choose. The idea of Puzzler's Exchange was born!

After doing puzzle exchanges for six months, Puzzler's Exchange became a Minnesota 501(c)(3) nonprofit in April of 2018. Puzzle exchanges were suspended during Covid to protect the most vulnerable. As of 2024, Puzzler's Exchange has recovered from the effects of Covid (see our 2024 annual report on our Facebook page). Currently we maintain a curated inventory of over 5000 large-piece puzzles from 20-1000 pieces, and have provided participant/collaborator locations from individuals, families and senior residences (independent, assisted living, memory care, transitional care, long-term care), to programs for those with disabilities, over 11,000 puzzles for the benefit of hundreds of individuals/caregivers. 

Large-piece puzzles provide enough challenge and stimulation without being overwhelming, which is important for building and maintaining resilience in the face of adversity.

Large-piece puzzles are empowering for those who often lose the ability to do so much when faced with health-related challenges.

Puzzling provides an informal social context that reduces isolation and builds emotional well-being that helps maintain quality of life for individuals, families and caregivers who are living with and managing health-related difficulties.