Fundraiser for Special Needs

[+Darth DaAce]

Hi everybody, I'm not sure where to post this so here I am...

 

I'm organizing a Geocaching Challenge for my son's school in Decatur, GA (Atlanta metro area). It's a high school and young adult program for people with autism. I see Groundspeak has lots of cool things for education tie-ins (we can use some of that) but I didn't know if they had other things that I could buy or download or whatever to support this event. I figured we could hide an official school geocache, and give coins or trackables as prizes for most caches found or most money raised (we're going to have friends and family sponsor the kids with pledges per cache found). I looked into getting coins minted but it's a small school (around 20 students) and that seemed cost prohibitive. The event is going to last throughout the month of October.

 

Any suggestions or ideas? Anybody ever done anything like this?

 

Thanks,

Mike "Darth DaAce" Fields

[+ADKer]

I hate to only look on the negative side of things, but...

1. Cache listings aren't allowed to promote any sort agenda...even with the best cause. You'd have to make sure not to do that on the website.

2. You said an official school cache? Remember, caches aren't allowed to be temporary. (Unless you were thinking of an Event Cache?) The cache would have to be at the school from then on. Caches around schools are tricky business. Though I think I remember Keystone posting at one point that a reviewer could get permission from a school administrator...but I'm not sure.

 

Sorry to be such a downer, but I wish you the best of luck!!!

[+gpsfun]

The primary issue that will be an obstacle for your idea is that the geocaching guidelines do not allow caches with an agenda or solicitation to be published.

 

From the guidelines:

 

"Geocaches do not solicit for any purpose. Cache listings perceived to be posted for religious, political, charitable or social agendas are not permitted. Geocaching is intended to be an enjoyable, family-friendly hobby, not a platform for an agenda."

 

The quoted guideline text can be found here: http://www.geocaching.com/about/guidelines.aspx#solicitation

 

Permit me to help explain this.

 

Certainly autism awareness is a program that is doing great work, worthy of both recognition and support. However, as you go down the list of organizations starting with those doing great work, and then those who are doing good work, and then those who are doing fair or so-so work, and on to those who are held in a negative light by nearly everyone, serious problems become obvious. The primary problem is where do you draw the line, and who draws it?

 

This is what is known as a slippery slope issue; once you start on the slope, it is hard to avoid slipping beyond where you wanted to be. Therefore, the answer is that we do not step on the slope at all.

 

I regret that you might find this unhelpful, and hopefully you can find other methods to bring awareness to autism.

 

-Brad

Geocaching volunteer reviewer

[+Darth DaAce]

Thanks for the info. For the official school I just meant a cache the participants could make and hide. I wasn't thinking of making it a "support autism" cache. More like a time capsule kind if thing... Just the experience of hiding something others could find. Thanks for clarifying that though, I'll make sure we don't add a cache that would be a violation. My question was actually more about prize support. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

 

Thanks,

Mike