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A memorial cache?


WarNinjas

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I don't know if many of you have heard of the San Bruno Cal, PG&E pipeline explosion. It was in my sisters front yard. It blew up my nephew and killed his girlfriend who took the day off work to watch a football game with him. I don't know how he survived such a huge explosion so close but somehow he did barely. He is still disabled with walking problems and burned over 100% of his body at age 19. He is really taking loosing his girlfriend hard after waking up 4 months later and missing the funeral. It has almost been a year and I decided to take him caching. He thinks it is really cool. I was thinking of setting up a cache at a park that she used to walk her dogs at in her name. After taking him to many caches I brought up the idea to him and shockingly he liked it. I thought it could be cool to put her pic in the lid and share the story of what happened on the log or somewhere in the cache for everyone to remember what happened, also friends and family could go visit the cache. I was just wondering what others here thought of such a cache? I have a really good leak proof container to set up for it but don't want it to be depressing for cachers but more of a thing to help him out with logs that people know what happened. Thought I would run it by the members here before I try and set it up. I think it could be a cool thing for him and her family and I think I have seen stuff like this around. Any opinions?

-WarNinjas

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You will have to check with your reviewer on this one. Memorial caches could be considered an agenda, but your reviewer may choose to publish it anyways.

 

He is still disabled with walking problems and burned over 100% of his body at age 19.

That's impossible.

 

Have some class man, and leave out the pedantic corrections on the man's story of his family tragedy. Seriously, show some tact. He gave you a much much kinder response then I would have in the same situation.

 

On-topic: I think the memorial cache is a great idea. When a popular local cacher (I was too new at the time to know him) passed away, there were numerous memorial caches put out there. An idea I've always liked is having folks tell a story or answer a question the person being memorialized would have enjoyed.

Edited by Hypnopaedia
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I think it's a great idea. I would stick with a simple lock n lock cache, and put her photo and dates on the cache page. I think rather than the details of her death on the cache page, how about a tribute to all the best things about her or special memories, like a celebration of life. I wouldn't put a photo in the cache, in case the moisture gets to it. The only other thing I can think is that it's really important to have a maintenance plan in place so the cache is kept well. I found a memorial cache the other day and it was not in good condition, I don't think the deceased would have liked that.

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...I think rather than the details of her death on the cache page, how about a tribute to all the best things about her or special memories, like a celebration of life....

 

+1

 

And I've seen tribute caches for fallen friends (human and animal) all over the place. I can't imagine anyone getting their undies in a bunch over something like this.

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There is one near me that a local cacher placed in remembrance of his wife near the gazebo where they were married. There is no agenda in this sort of cache unless you were to use the cache page to attack the gas company. Though based on your description this does not seem the case. I say go for it and if there are any issues you can work them out with the reviewer. Sorry about that tragedy, though I'm glad to hear the young man is doing better.

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So sorry about your nephew and his girlfriend. I can't even imagine what it must be like for him, and I hope the recovery process continues to go well.

 

I hope you can get this cache published. I have seen discussions about caches with agendas being denied, and that included caches dedicated to someone. But I really hope your reviewer has a heart and allows yours to be placed.

Good luck!

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I don't know if many of you have heard of the San Bruno Cal, PG&E pipeline explosion. It was in my sisters front yard. It blew up my nephew and killed his girlfriend who took the day off work to watch a football game with him. I don't know how he survived such a huge explosion so close but somehow he did barely. He is still disabled with walking problems and burned over 100% of his body at age 19. He is really taking loosing his girlfriend hard after waking up 4 months later and missing the funeral. It has almost been a year and I decided to take him caching. He thinks it is really cool. I was thinking of setting up a cache at a park that she used to walk her dogs at in her name. After taking him to many caches I brought up the idea to him and shockingly he liked it. I thought it could be cool to put her pic in the lid and share the story of what happened on the log or somewhere in the cache for everyone to remember what happened, also friends and family could go visit the cache. I was just wondering what others here thought of such a cache? I have a really good leak proof container to set up for it but don't want it to be depressing for cachers but more of a thing to help him out with logs that people know what happened. Thought I would run it by the members here before I try and set it up. I think it could be a cool thing for him and her family and I think I have seen stuff like this around. Any opinions?

-WarNinjas

Sounds like a great idea...just be sure to run it past a local reviewer...they will be able to help you out with what is ok and what isn't ok...mainly on the rememberance vs agenda stuff people have already mentioned.

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Memorial caches are generally fine. My very first cache hidden in Sept 2001 was placed in memory of a family friend who lost his life on 9/11. I doubt the wording on the page at the time would have been allowed today as it certainly crossed the line into an agenda (I've since toned it down).

 

That is the key, don't make it sound like an agenda and you should be fine.

 

"This cache is placed in memory of Jane Doe who loved walking her dog in this park" would probably be OK.

 

"This cache is placed in memory of Jane Doe who was a victim of a pipeline explosion caused by criminal negligence on the part of PG&E. Please take a moment to remember her and the other victims of this senseless tragedy" is something that would probably be flagged as an agenda.

 

Avoid any requests for action, e.g. "Pause to remember", or rants or effusive praise and you should be OK.

Edited by briansnat
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<snip>

 

... My very first cache hidden in Sept 2011 was placed in memory of a family friend who lost his life on 9/11. I doubt the wording on the page at the time would have been allowed today as it certainly crossed the line into an agenda (I've since toned it down).

 

<snip>

 

Just looked up your cache, its really quite moving.

 

I think Memorial Caches are OK, it gives finders a opportunity for a moment of reflection and a connection with the CO at GZ. You really know some thought has gone into placement - not just the "where?" but also the "why?".

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My very first cache hidden in Sept 2011 was placed in memory of a family friend who lost his life on 9/11. I doubt

 

I'm guessing not Sept 2011, but maybe 2001? If you do have a time machine, let me know, I'd like to go to some events in the past. :laughing:

 

edit: not geocaching events, personal choices.

Edited by CanDMan47
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Its poor taste in my opinion to have memorial caches. :unsure:

 

How would you feel if someone log your memorial caches as "I had a blast here, thanks for the fun cache!" :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r:

 

For me... I log all memorial caches as SL TFTH. I am not a fan of them.

I would feel great, the last thing I would want is people feeling sad. There is no better way to celebrate someones life then with good memories. :D

Edited by captnemo
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Its poor taste in my opinion to have memorial caches. :unsure:

 

How would you feel if someone log your memorial caches as "I had a blast here, thanks for the fun cache!" :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r:

 

For me... I log all memorial caches as SL TFTH. I am not a fan of them.

I would feel great, the last thing I would want is people feeling sad. There is no better way to celebrate someones life then with good memories. :D

 

Copy that captnemo!

 

If there should be a cache created in my honor after I depart this world, I would SERIOUSLY HOPE everyone will have a blast finding it. Perhaps a little pain and suffering in the process, but a blast overall. B)

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There do seem to be a variety of memorial caches around. Both for groups of people and individuals.

 

Two of my caches memorialize individuals, but they were people who died at least 50 years ago.

 

I think a tasteful memorial cache would be a fitting tribute. I wouldn't expand too much on the accident itself though, I'd focus on who the person was as a person.

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Thanks for all the replies! The thought of bashing PG&E never even crossed my mind. This was just a thought that I was thinking my nephew and her family might like because they are having a hard time loosing her at age 20. Just in memory of her. I figured it might be a good idea to ask first because I have this great forum of cachers here. Thanks also for the tips of not putting down about the explosion as that might be best and something I would have not thought would be a problem. I have a nice boating waterproof container that people can leave stuff in and we can pack it with swagg that she had liked. I want to make it more of a fun celebration of life then a depressing thing. I know fun is the wrong word but you get the idea. I wish PG&E had prevented this but I know they didn't want this to happen and seem to be doing what they can to try and fix it even though it can never be fixed. This was never thought of or will never be anything to do with PG&E. I will work on it with my nephew and probability have him make an account and make it his cache and make sure it is well maintained.

Thanks again

-WarNinjas

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Its poor taste in my opinion to have memorial caches. :unsure:

 

How would you feel if someone log your memorial caches as "I had a blast here, thanks for the fun cache!" :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r:

 

For me... I log all memorial caches as SL TFTH. I am not a fan of them.

 

You make me sad. Not only are your comments depressing to me, but your forum info too. You chose a name for yourself based on a deadly virus, which looks to have been made during the height of the big swine flu scare back in 2009. You even consider youself a "premium member NOBODY".

 

I hope someone does make a memorial cache for me when my time is up, and I hope everyone who finds it has a blast. There's nothing wrong with that, and it better not be a lampskirt cache either.

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I think it is a wonderful idea, and will help your nephew to heal. I wish him all the very best in the long journey ahead - he is lucky to have you to help him on the way.

As others have said, celebrate his girlfriend's life, not the tragic manner of her passing. I was truly sorry to hear that. Someone wrote in a sympathy card I received "A special life brings precious memories and those memories will live forever." It helped me a lot.....

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I think it's a great idea. I would stick with a simple lock n lock cache, and put her photo and dates on the cache page. I think rather than the details of her death on the cache page, how about a tribute to all the best things about her or special memories, like a celebration of life. I wouldn't put a photo in the cache, in case the moisture gets to it. The only other thing I can think is that it's really important to have a maintenance plan in place so the cache is kept well. I found a memorial cache the other day and it was not in good condition, I don't think the deceased would have liked that.

Maybe a laminated photo and keep it well maintained. I agree there would be nothing worse then to have a wet cache in memory of her. The container I have is solid and waterproof better then a lock n lock in my opinion and a little more expensive. I would not put anything less out for this situation.

-WarNinjas

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I think it's a great idea. I would stick with a simple lock n lock cache, and put her photo and dates on the cache page. I think rather than the details of her death on the cache page, how about a tribute to all the best things about her or special memories, like a celebration of life. I wouldn't put a photo in the cache, in case the moisture gets to it. The only other thing I can think is that it's really important to have a maintenance plan in place so the cache is kept well. I found a memorial cache the other day and it was not in good condition, I don't think the deceased would have liked that.

Maybe a laminated photo and keep it well maintained. I agree there would be nothing worse then to have a wet cache in memory of her. The container I have is solid and waterproof better then a lock n lock in my opinion and a little more expensive. I would not put anything less out for this situation.

-WarNinjas

This will not void all, if not most, of the maintenance. People will put in bad trade items and people will not close it right. Those two things alone mean you will have to take care of it monthly, or preferably, bi-weekly to have it in great condition. Stock it up with swag, and if someone "accidentally" sealed it wrong. Take out all the water.

 

There is no free-ride in cache maintenance. Hide this one close by, and keep it nice. I'd be more then upset if my memorial cache was not given the same treatment.

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I think it's a great idea. I would stick with a simple lock n lock cache, and put her photo and dates on the cache page. I think rather than the details of her death on the cache page, how about a tribute to all the best things about her or special memories, like a celebration of life. I wouldn't put a photo in the cache, in case the moisture gets to it. The only other thing I can think is that it's really important to have a maintenance plan in place so the cache is kept well. I found a memorial cache the other day and it was not in good condition, I don't think the deceased would have liked that.

Maybe a laminated photo and keep it well maintained. I agree there would be nothing worse then to have a wet cache in memory of her. The container I have is solid and waterproof better then a lock n lock in my opinion and a little more expensive. I would not put anything less out for this situation.

-WarNinjas

 

I also have a memorial cache for a local geocacher who passed away. It's an ammo box and I have his laminated obit and a photo glued inside the lid. I made sure to place it in the type of place he liked to hide his caches.

 

Of course the person you intend to memorialize might not have been a geocacher, but you can personalize it by stocking it with items that are closely associated with the victim. If she was a cat lover, make all the contents cat themed. If she was an athlete, perhaps stock it with items related to her favorite sports.

 

Um, folks, this thread is over 2 years old and the cache was approved shortly after the original discussion.

 

How many times do we have to tell you to stop visiting these forums from the future? No need to show off that you have a time machine.

 

Anyway thanks for letting us know that it all worked out and will be published. BTW can you tell me if my house survived this coming hurricane? Oh and while you are at it, what are Monday's Powerball numbers?

Edited by briansnat
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I think memorial caches are great. We have several around here. When a local cacher passed away a couple of years ago a long hike with wife, daugher and other cachers took us up to the top of a mountain where a memorial cache was hidden with photos and memories left there. The online logs included past photos of his caching adventures. It's a hard cache to reach and I knew this cacher well enough to think that dancing around or shouting or writing "had a great time" in the logbook would bring a very big grin to his face.

 

Go ahead .. pay respect with your memorial hide.

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I think it's a great idea. I would stick with a simple lock n lock cache, and put her photo and dates on the cache page. I think rather than the details of her death on the cache page, how about a tribute to all the best things about her or special memories, like a celebration of life. I wouldn't put a photo in the cache, in case the moisture gets to it. The only other thing I can think is that it's really important to have a maintenance plan in place so the cache is kept well. I found a memorial cache the other day and it was not in good condition, I don't think the deceased would have liked that.

Maybe a laminated photo and keep it well maintained. I agree there would be nothing worse then to have a wet cache in memory of her. The container I have is solid and waterproof better then a lock n lock in my opinion and a little more expensive. I would not put anything less out for this situation.

-WarNinjas

 

I also have a memorial cache for a local geocacher who passed away. It's an ammo box and I have his laminated obit and a photo glued inside the lid. I made sure to place it in the type of place he liked to hide his caches.

 

 

I guess I will come out of forum banishment for this post. :o

 

That is an awesome tribute, that I've noticed, and tried to fit into my schedule on the way home from NYC a couple times in the past few years, but it's tough convincing the wife and kids to stop for a cache.

 

I did not ever meet that Geocacher, but I found a couple of his caches, and was inspired by his awesome online cache logs, and many posts to the (then) Northeast Forum (now Mid-Atlantic forum). Which is also where I heard of his untimely death.

 

You should post a link to that cache, to show how a tribute can, and should be done, all while not being considered an Agenda. :)

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I think it's a great idea. I would stick with a simple lock n lock cache, and put her photo and dates on the cache page. I think rather than the details of her death on the cache page, how about a tribute to all the best things about her or special memories, like a celebration of life. I wouldn't put a photo in the cache, in case the moisture gets to it. The only other thing I can think is that it's really important to have a maintenance plan in place so the cache is kept well. I found a memorial cache the other day and it was not in good condition, I don't think the deceased would have liked that.

Maybe a laminated photo and keep it well maintained. I agree there would be nothing worse then to have a wet cache in memory of her. The container I have is solid and waterproof better then a lock n lock in my opinion and a little more expensive. I would not put anything less out for this situation.

-WarNinjas

This will not void all, if not most, of the maintenance. People will put in bad trade items and people will not close it right. Those two things alone mean you will have to take care of it monthly, or preferably, bi-weekly to have it in great condition. Stock it up with swag, and if someone "accidentally" sealed it wrong. Take out all the water.

 

There is no free-ride in cache maintenance. Hide this one close by, and keep it nice. I'd be more then upset if my memorial cache was not given the same treatment.

 

This would be my most maintained cache. The place I want to hide it would be between his house and mine. That way we could both stop by and maintain it.

-WarNinjas

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Took my nephew fishing today then after we went and scoped out the park. It looks kind of hard to find a good spot for the container but we did find a spot down the alley that she walked her dogs to get to the park we might use. Then back to my house to start work on the container. I came up with that she liked butterflies so we added the ones I had and then ordered some on ebay. I let him pick out some pics and we laminated them and put those in to. Also She liked the Giants so we added in a shot glass. She also liked the color purple and drawing so we added in some purple stencils. We are going to get more swagg for it but this is what we came up with so far.

 

P1080354.jpg

 

P1080361.jpg

 

-WarNinjas

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Took my nephew fishing today then after we went and scoped out the park. It looks kind of hard to find a good spot for the container but we did find a spot down the alley that she walked her dogs to get to the park we might use. Then back to my house to start work on the container. I came up with that she liked butterflies so we added the ones I had and then ordered some on ebay. I let him pick out some pics and we laminated them and put those in to. Also She liked the Giants so we added in a shot glass. She also liked the color purple and drawing so we added in some purple stencils. We are going to get more swagg for it but this is what we came up with so far.

 

P1080354.jpg

 

P1080361.jpg

 

-WarNinjas

 

Very nicely done.

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Geocaching has been an official activity at the World Burn Congress for the past three years. I have put the OP in touch with the local cacher who initiated this relationship. I hope it works out for all involved. And this particular memorial cache is very well done.

 

I helped Maingray and crew with the World Burn Congress geocaching activities, in Galveston, last year. It was a great experience that I would do again. I really enjoyed it.

 

And yes, way cool on the cache. I hope I can do as good of a job on one I am planning.

 

I plan on doing a memorial cache for a friend of mine who was a legend in Law Enforcement.

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