Volunteers Needed - Boy Scout Extravaganza '09 Sat. 4/4/09

The Arkansas Geocachers Association has been invited to the Boys Scouts of America Camporee Event called Extravaganza '09 on Saturday, April 4th, 2009 at Fort Chaffee near Fort Smith.

ArkGeo will be setting up a booth at the Boy Scout event to promote geocaching and the Arkansas Geocachers Association. The booth will be set up at the event from about 7:45 AM until approximately 6:00 PM. The booth will be staffed with volunteers from ArkGeo who will hand out ArkGeo brochures. The booth will have some caches on display along with some travel bugs and geocoins.

There will be 5 temporary caches for the Boy Scouts to find that will be set up in an area designated for our use. The boys will be given the coordinates to the temporary caches so they can find them.

We are looking for volunteers to help staff the booth and assist the Scouts with their hunts and using GPSrs for caching.

NOTE: This is NOT a geocaching event. It is NOT open to just everyone. It is being held on an area of Fort Chaffee with monitored/limited access.

Anyone who would be willing to volunteer to help (even if for only a couple of hours) with this please send me an email to paris1time@yahoo.com

I need to know who is going to help and send their names to the Scouts by March 18th so they can add their names to the list at the main gate to allow entry onto Fort Chaffee.

Thanks to everyone in advance!

David Spicer
paris1time

On Saturday, April 4th, 2009, Bruce Crane, Jerry Turner, Pat Vaughn, and I staffed an Arkansas Geocachers Association booth at the Boy Scouts of America Extravaganza '09 held at Fort Chaffee.

We hid the five temporary caches. One cache was a small container hidden in a hollow stump. One cache was a contact lens container placed on a fire hydrant. One cache was a fake cover placed on the side of a panel at a RV site. One cache was a film canister hidden under a “skirt” of a light post at another RV site. One was an ammo can hidden in a hollow tree lying on the ground.

We also had some creative cache container examples at the booth along with a travel bug and some geocoins. We also had a few ArkGeo brochures we had printed and handed them out.

We took turns using GPS receivers and taking groups of kids and adults to find the temporary caches.

By the end of the day we had marked down that we had approximately 130 that had searched for and found the temporary caches. I suspect that number is really higher and we also had many more that stopped by to visit and talk with us.

I don’t feel that the true success of the event can be measured by the numbers and I believe that we made contact with many kids, Scout leaders, and adults that will be positive not only for geocaching but the Arkansas Geocachers Association. I heard nothing but positive feedback from those that visited us.

Here are a couple of photos I took. The last photo is of a shirt one Scout was wearing. I didn't know that Old River Runner had his own camp.

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u...g?t=1239073955


http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u...g?t=1239074318

By the way, in this next photo. That shiny fake plate on the side of the box is the hidden cache. This photo was taken while they were searching and had not yet found it. I told the boy in the red shirt I wanted to take his picture "with the cache" and he didn't even realize that was a hint. The looked several more minutes before finally finding it. By the way that really nice guy, Woodwalker, was responsible for that evil hide. The kids all loved it.

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u...g?t=1239074358

And the ORR camp shirt....
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u...g?t=1239074217

What a great day we had! I went expecting to teach, and I did, but I also learned a lot as well.
David made the comment at one point, that it was like a years worth of caching stuffed into one day, as far as the caches were concerned. They were constantly moving, even when we were there to guide.
The kids were absolutely great! Anybody who is worried about this country's future generations, would have been pleasantly surprised with the intelligent, articulate, and curious young men we worked with on Saturday. They ALL, to a person, said over and over, what we already know; THIS IS FUN! I heard numerous times; CAN WE GO THROUGH AGAIN!
It was a great day spent with great people. Anytime you have an opportunity to spend a day with Pat, Jerry, and David, you are doing yourself a disservice, if you don't. That being said, we could sure use some more help next time. I am still tired from the experience. How tired? I drove right by a bunch of Logan and Johnson County caches on the way home Saturday night and only stopped for one (tired, not dead)!
One last really funny thing. In picture #3, they still haven't found the cache!!! OMG, that was too funny! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Thanks guys for representing AR geocachers! It sounds like it was a fun day. Maybe next time I can join in on the fun.:D

I was at Regional Bible Drill on Saturday with a 5th grade girl from my church. :lol: She made it to State Bible Drill.

I'm so glad this event was a success. I sure wish I could have been there but such is the life of a Scoutmaster. I'll bet the we'll get invitations to other Scouting events in the future.

I spoke with one of my fellow Scoutmasters from the Shirley area and he introduced to geocaching at the "Camporee" weekend we had last spring that several ArkGeo members helped me put on. He said he is officially "addicted" and has even hidden some caches in his area. Can't wait to go find them!