Geocaching At Munford Celebrate

In 1986, I was transferred to NAS Millington to begin my final tour of duty with the US Navy. I looked at a couple of houses in various communities and chose Munford to be my new home town. I had no intention of staying permanently, or close to it, but here I am, 21 years later and still in the same spot. The town of Munford has grown dramatically but it still has the "friendly home town" appeal that attracted me on that June day in 1986.

One of my favorite events that occurs in Munford is their annual Celebrate Munford weekend. It is usually on the 3rd Saturday of September and is a street carnival, craft fair, food blow-out, car show, and more that is nothing short of a really good time. For more information, please follow this link:
"Celebrate Munford"

Those that know me realize that since February, I have "geocaching" in my blood and I thought that "Geocaching At Munford Celebrate" would be a perfect opportunity to share Celebrate Munford with my geocaching friends and offer a venue to help promote the hobby to literally thousands of "muggles" who attend the annual event.

Planning started almost 3 months ago and that included getting permission from the Munford Mayor and city council to place caches in the area, contacting potential sponsors, reserving booth space, and submitting the event data to Groundspeak. I won't say it all went without a hitch as Groundspeak wouldn't approve it at first because I had mentioned sponsors who had donated prizes. They didn't even want me to mention their names or display their logos. I found this odd because Groundspeak displays those same sponsors on their pages. As a matter of fact, I used the ads on "Geocaching.com" to contact those same sponsors. Nevertheless, the event was finally approved and it was time to start advertising on the different forums and waiting for the door prizes to arrive. I naturally worried about how the weather would be, who might or might not attend, and how to put up a professional booth and at the same time show the attendees a good time while they attended. Celebrate Munford took care of the good time and with the thanks of a couple of people I will mention later and I think the booth gave a most positive impression for Geocaching and put Goecachers of West Tennessee ( GOWT ) "Geocachers of West Tennessee" in the minds of quite a few new cachers.

The Main Event

Saturday the 15th of September finally arrived and I set out before dawn to start setting up the booth. Within a few minutes, I look down the street and see my friend PoohBear94 ( Freddie ) walking up and carrying the biggest ammo can I have yet to see. I had asked Freddie if he could bring a couple of prizes for kids but when he opened the ammo can, I saw he had gone above and beyond anything I could have hoped for. Not only did he bring some nice prizes, he also pitched in and helped me get things organized.

Shortly after Freddie and I had the booth set up and ready to go, Riskit123 ( George ) walked up and became our First To Find. Not too long after George arrived, another friend, Mackheath ( Ed ) made his appearance and became part of the crew at the booth. The three of us were ready to take on the "muggles" and present Geocaching in a most positive light to all who were interested. Later on we were also joined by minismiths ( Shawn )and his family. Shawn had helped me place a cache for the event and was an integral part of my planning, helping with ideas and giving much needed support.

Next to show was titansfan, pharmd93, and sherlock121. Titansfan donated a nice ammo can with all the trimmings as a door prize and that was very much appreciated. I'm happy to say that a new family of cachers won that particular prize and they were absolutely thrilled. I know my first personal ammo can was kind of special.

Sherlock121 ( Ethan ) took an interest in some NASA Space Shuttle photos I had on my computer and spent some time at "Event Central" manning our desk and helping greet the public. It was a pleasure to meet him and I was proud to share the photos with him.

Throughout the day, several other cachers visited the booth including tinksdad01, Rd King, Shredder27, Dbl06, turdler, P-man, budtugly01, and JrByrdman162. SpyGirl2011 (Kendal) was there to help run errands and at one time served as a phone relay while some of us searched for an elusive cache placed by PoohBear94. Of course, you know who showed up wearing ORANGE - ProntoPup. Joe was a big help at the booth and along with MackHeath, manned the booth for a bit so I could search out a "real" pronto pup. I settled for a Bar-B-Que sandwich seeing that most of the "muggles" at Celebrate were in line for a pronto pup as well. Poohbear94 was visited by his lovely family and took time out for a little "bear nap" with a future bear cacher.
All in all Munford Celebrate and Geocaching At Munford Celebrate was a lot of fun. The weather was beautiful, the attendance at Celebrate exceeded all previous years, and the comraderie shared at our booth was superb. We all found a few caches, spun a few tales, and put forth a most positive view of geocaching to members of the public who stopped by the booth.

The sights, smells, and people made this a most special day. I guess my attention was grabbed by one "sight" in the crowd. I still don't know what "it" was, but "it" fit right in with the rest of the celebration.

An Editorial

As the organizer and sponsor of this event, I feel the need and right to make some final comments concerning not just this event, but participation and attendance at geocaching events and other activities in general.

As a dedicated geocacher, I have joined several organizations to further my knowledge and skills at my chosen hobby. I thought that by joining several organizations I could not only broaden my friendship base, but I could also learn from many of the best at the game. Unfortunately, what I have found is bias, prejudice, and the worst - apathy. There are cachers and geocaching organizations or groups who will shun, villify, and do anything to disrupt the enjoyment that others gain from this hobby, especially if you don't agree with everything they say or do. I am an individual and I should always be allowed to express my opinion without fear of being banned, demeaned, and talked about behind my back and to my face. These individuals who practice this form of bias are in my opinion pariahs of the sport. They demean and belittle the very sport they claim they are advocates for. Their words and actions fall far from the Geocacher's Creed in my humble opinion. I firmly believe that those words and actions are a glowing "tribute" to their ignorance and inabilty to see beyond their local area. I liken these people to members of the Jones sect who committed suicide at the urging of their leader. They gained nothing and are no more. They are not now nor will they ever be a true Geocacher in my opinion.

I also will point fingers at geocachers who cannot or will not support their own organizations. Apathy in my opinion should be one of the deadly sins. These people are content to sit back and watch a good organization fall apart before their eyes yet they will certainly complain about so many things but not raise one finger to offer a solution or any kind of help. If you cannot or will not support your organization, why are you even a member? Someone once said "If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem."