Thursday, May 11, 2006

Muddy Cachers

Well if I feel tomorrow
Like I feel today
I'm gonna pack my GPS
And make my getaway
Lord I'm troubled,
I'm all worried in mind
And I'm never bein' so horrified,
And I just can't keep from cryin'
-- Muddy Cachers
(original lyrics by Muddy Waters)

I just got done listening to the greatest and really only podcast about geocaching and heard a recommendation for a PowerPoint presentation used to help educate Police and or other law enforcement officers about geocaching. The presentation in question showed photos of geocachers sneaking behind bleachers, climbing over guardrails out onto bridge girders, and finding containers near concrete bridge supports. It also had several photos of ammunition boxes with the military markings still visible and even a huge buried cache! The presentation began by showing excerpts from news articles of geocachers falling to their death, being arrested for hanging buckets from a major overpass, and having cache containers blown up by bomb squads outside of police stations.
I know ALL of this has happened and is public knowledge, but why on earth would you choose this stuff when giving a presentation to police officers about geocaching?
If you want law enforcement officers to learn about geocaching as a family-friendly, outdoor-loving, eco-friendly and police-friendly sport, show them the good stuff!!! Show them the pictures of Brandon's kids, or some informational articles on jestcaching, or some of the great stories about kid's geocaching birthday parties on the PodCacher site, or even photos of a bunch of city-slickers about to kayak down a river in central Texas. Tell them about Cache-In, Trash-Out or about the Geocachers Creed.
Inform them about the sport, but do it the right way - "Safe, Legal, Ethical." Tell them what we do and how we do it, but make sure the examples you give show geocaching in a positive way. Make any presentation about geocaching seem like something they should try themselves and not something they should be on the look-out for.

1 comment:

jestjuggle said...

Hey John -

Good post!

Mike

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