Geofreakz & Parks Canada
While planning for our Geocaching Event/Challenge to be held in conjunction with our Community Days in August, I have had a chance to chat with some interesting people. Our Community Days Committee picks a theme each year and this year’s is ‘Comics’. I was doing research on comic characters for cache names, oh oh I let that secret out of the bag on that one, I came across GeoFreakz. So being the shy person that I am, I reached out.
Yesterday we received the package with a personally written note:
“Hi Shelley – Thanks for your interest in Geofreakz & the Parks Canada Geotrails Program. As per our convo I’ve included our Geofreakz character trackables & 2 posters outlining our parks program. If you can post these at your local organization that would be wonderful. Many thanks, J”
POSTER:
WE WANT YOU AT
GEO FREAKZ GEOTRAILS
MAY 19 – OCTOBER 13, 2012-04-05
YOUR MISSION:
Head to the Visitor Center to rent
Your free Magellan Explorist GC
And begin your quest for
GEOFREAKZ CACHES!
Join the quest
So, I am here to share the information with you. We have been able to add a few GeoFreakz Trackables to that which we have already gathered for our event – so stay tuned. We are planning an evening of ‘get to know what Geocaching is’ for families and kids, of our approximately 2100 population, with some caches for practice and a Challenge for the Geocachers out there. We continue to gather prizes and hope you will come and play with us in August.
I have a little background on this project.
This company (CCI) is the producer or something of this TV show and has partnered with Groundspeak for the TV show. Now they want to branch out with caches all over Canada in the National Parks. What they don’t know is how geocaching works in the parks that already have partnerships with other groups or are doing it on their own. They made a list of Parks and said “put 4 cache there”, one of them was the citadel in Halifax. Anyone who knows that area will realize that you can’t even fit one cache there.
I guess from what I have read is they are sending pre-made containers to the Parks they picked and telling them to find “a volunteer” to hide for them and send them the coordinates. Many of the Parks people don’t know what to do or who to contact except the ones around here who contacted the ACGA but we still haven’t heard anything. They list a cache in PEI National park but there isn’t one there. Not sure how far they are with this or how far it will go outside of the TV show and Trackables, it is a huge project and they are not getting the volunteers all over Canada they want from the looks of it. They are “borrowing” the Fundy park plan and “look” for the listings to get it going. Not sure if it has gone live yet, this may be the first year for it in Waterton Park in Ontario. From what I know this won’t be at any parks around here unless they are doing it themselves behind closed doors.
It is a cool idea for the Kids to take the game outside and off the TV but so far it is still very small with some bumps to work out.
Having been contacted by both geofrekz & Parks Canada about this, I can tell you from what I’ve seen this has the potential to be a big mess. Bottom line, it’s a tv show tying to get viewers and are targeting locations that may not be the best sites. And Parks Canada can’t refuse essentially a free program, but they don’t like how things have been going as compared to the Environment Canada Contest last year. Maybe it got better since…
My thinking while viewing the minis/game is that it essentially points out to kids that there is something else to do outside of watching tv/video games etc. But, they do have an ‘on line game’……. But I think it will bring Geocaching to some folks that it may not have known previously. I know from experience, that I have mentioned Geocaching to folks and they ask about it, look it up, and often join in the search.
But this won’t stop people like myself from doing the others within the Parks, but it may encourage others to look for those put out by folks like Rev and such. A lack of knowledge is often a good opportunity for teaching. Maybe one can learn from each other.
Well Rev hasn’t placed any caches in Fundy yet, the majority has been me in the last 4 years in Fundy, Keji, Cape Breton, etc…. However, any additions are welcomed, even if it’s from a tv show.
My apologies ‘thecyr’ I didn’t intend to mis-lead. Thank you for the caches and I would have to agree. The more the merrier. Thanks again. We have further ones in the planning but not within those areas. Happy caching.
so i have also been in touch with the fine people at CCI. i really like what they are doing. i offered the help of cacheupnb as we have a good crowd of knowledgeable folks here that can answer the types of questions they might be asking.
it sounds like maybe they could use some support. i hope no one minds. 😉
I got a couple emails from the staff of the show talking about planning next years stuff as they are done planning this year’s hides. they are sending along some trackables to me as well to donate to the cacheupnb prize bucket. i’ll post photos of those when they arrive. i would assume they’re cute.
Also, i got an email on friday from Chris G, the creator of geofreakz himself praising the site here and all of the people in this great community!
He emailed asking if I/we could find someone 9-12 years of age who would like to be profiled & interviewed about geocaching for http://www.themagazine.ca/
let me say that again:
Your favorite geokid. In a national magazine. Talking about geocaching. Newsstands and checkouts everywhere.
If you have the child for this interview, let me know and i’ll get you set up.
My boys are 8 and 10. And weird. I’m sure either would love to talk…no guarantees on what they might say, but they’ve been all over with us including GW9 last year.
sent an email to your geocaching account yest. got no response.
please drop me a note thru geocaching.com with an email address to get you connected to the people in question.
thanks 🙂
cool. just what they need i bet. and 2 for the price of one has to be a boon.
thanks.
be in touch in a sec.
I have enjoyed chatting with them and also receivd TBs. And yes, they are cute!! Great work!
thanks to you for raising awareness in the group.
i’m not normally the type to grab on to things, but this seems like a really cool idea for kids. I also know that navigating thru associations, organizations, rules & regulations can be tough when you are an outsider in a new area.
this seems like a great fit. lets see what happens.
Looks like El Nimrod is helping them out in PEI.
http://coord.info/GC3H7MV