GC43y4T was one of the greatest events in caching history
This event was by far my favorite one we have hosted. It was the most work and almost a disaster. At 11am the morning of the event the mall that we were going to host the event at backed out. They think 60+ geocachers are a threat to mall security. (I think they heard SuperBee and Dumbledore’s Army 2006 were going to be there.) After long negotiations with the scaredy cat mall I was informed if we did show up mall security would be waiting to escort us off the property. So Balkamper13 and I were left scrambling to find a new location for our event that was less than 8 hours away. We started calling malls and we got ahold of guest services at South Towne Center and they were more than happy for our group to meet there. So we rushed to the mall, met with guest services, hid 9 caches and started rewriting our clue books. We had to completely re do 5 clue books and try and contact all of the cachers to let them know we were kicked out of the other mall and relocating event. WOW, took some work but we were able to pull it off.
It came time for the event and we had a HUGE turn out. More people showed up than we had planned for and it was great! However we had a surprise 74th birthday party planned for 39”Geezer and he was not there. About an hour into the event Ted’s phone rang and it was BlueRajah asking where we were. He was at the scardey cat mall with 14 other geocachers including ‘39 Geezer (Luckily the mall didn’t realize they were geocachers.) They were having their own event waiting for the hosts to show up. Ted informed them of the change of plans and most of the group made it to South Towne Center.
The mall hunt for the caches had already begun. Each group had one clue book and had to go find 9 caches and in each cache they each took one colored number. We used the color coded numbers to award prizes later on in the event. It was fun to see how different groups found their caches, one group split the clues up and each member retrieved numbers for the whole group from the cache. Other groups stayed together and another group followed the lead of other groups for clues. It was fun seeing that many geocachers depart upon a mall caching adventure.
Unfortunately the five groups of 10+ each were returning from the mall caching hunt. We had McAwesome go collect the caches and bring the umbers back so those that just arrived would be in the running for a prize as well.
The prizes went over well, everyone got a personalized lanyard with name badge and then those with the winning numbers got to select from geocaching magnets, ready to hide caches, t-shirts, coins, tea and caching mugs to a 3lb Sugar Daddy. The prize table increased in size when Magellan Outdoors showed up and donated some more prizes. It was a welcomed surprise.
During the entire event we had the biggest Travel Bug trading and discovering activity I have ever seen. I have a list of at least 90-100 numbers to discover and share with other cachers.
Before we drew the numbers for prizes we were able to sing Happy Birthday to 39’Geezer and pass out cake during the giveaway. It was so neat to see so many people sing to a man that loves caching and is 74 yrs old. Highlight of our night. The log book was his birthday card and packed full of birthday wishes.
The drawing was a blast we had some of them rowdy cachers yelling “Bingo” and “You sank my Battleship!” They were even covering up numbers to try and win it was a hoot. Everyone was pleased with their gifts and after the drawing we had a lot of cachers stay and socialize.
This event was by far my favorite and I will never forget the fun we all had. Below is an album of our night. Looking forward to the next event.
Today is last day to enter to win personalized SWAG! Good luck to all that entered and those who will before end of day!
Happy Caching…how are your goals going? I am on day 20 of cache a day challenge and I also found my 900th today!
We picked this milestone up after a delicious lunch at The Panda restaurant, compliments of Ryshkepr and his awesome FTF prize. We went for one of his FTF’s and inside was $20 to The Panda, great FTF prize. Thanks so much Ryshkeper it is nice to find such great FTF prizes, G&C Lost’n’Found will love it when he goes with the other certificate that was in the cache!
