McFarlan Woods, Cincinnati, Ohio
September 24 and 25, 2005
Greg Sack, Event Director

    Thanks to all who helped with our National Orienteering day events!
    OCIN and Nature Education Division of Cincinnati Parks co-sponsored another Introduction to Orienteering meet at McFarlan Woods on September 24 & 25. This event was in conjunction with National Orienteering Day (NOD) and Cincinnati's Great Outdoor Weekend (GOW). NOD is a national event with the goal of introducing people to orienteering, while GOW is a local event meant to encourage participation in outdoor sports and activities.
    OCIN and orienteering was introduced to over 80 people during the course of the two days. We utilized the same games that Nature Ed.'s summer day camps had developed to teach love of nature and raise the comfort level of campers through orienteering. As people arrived they were given an overview of orienteering. Instruction was interspersed with free games like Safari-O, Treasure Hunt and a white course. All free games were on black and white maps provided by Nature Ed. They were required to sign the waiver, got to punch a copied card but the participants self-timed.     When the newly instructed were finished with the free offerings,they were given brochures from both parks and OCIN and invited to try  the full orienteering experience. There were a few that did go over to the regular meet site, which was about fifty feet away. (There were 45 "regular" orienteers over both days.) Many said that they were either too tired or did not have the time that day because they wanted to hit a few other event sites, but would come to another event. One family had to drag their protesting kids away because it was past last start time by about 45 minutes.
    It must be noted that Katie Williams, who graciously lent us her beautiful display on orienteering that she made for a school project, started at one of these cosponsored events. Now she is introducing other kids to orienteering and is running in A meets.
    Cincinnati Parks has recently bought a complete set of O' equipment and is offering orienteering at several of its centers and summer camps.
    Of the GOW events sponsored by Parks, ours had the highest total count in both years of GOW's existence.     So many people came out to help in some way. Special thanks to Jim Farfsing to letting us use Nature Ed's equipment and a Naturalist, Bobbi Sack. Special thanks to Claire and Dan Dell for drumming up volunteers and doing so much volunteering on both days: registration on Saturday and education on Sunday. Bob Frey and Dick Arnett were very generous with their time, talents and materials as well. There were several others who pitched in various ways, including David Williams, Mathew Robbins, Vincent Hand and Ellie Kennedy. Bobbi Sack developed and ran the educational games (including creating the simplified map required for these games,) Joyce Whalen designed the White and Yellow courses, Greg Sack set the Orange, Brown, Green and Red Courses. We did make an adjustment in the White course from day 1 to day 2 due to the recent rains.

White Course

    The course turned out to be quite slippery and treacherous after Friday night's rain. It had not been an issue the previous week, so organizers were taken by surprise. Matt Robbins made a suggestion regarding placing control #1, that turned out to be quite good. Control 3 was also moved to further reduce slippage and to keep the total length of the course as close as possible to the intended length. This resulted in faster times, but did not change the total number of new people needing assistance in the woods.

Saturday
Steve Kreuzter                        58:27      (Steve was NOD Grand Prize winner of a Brunton 80199 Sighting Compass)
Chris Burnett                           60:10
Julie & Nicole Bishop              61:00
Miriam Kaeser                        DNF
Kathleen McCarthy                 DNF

Sunday
No Timed Starts

Yellow Course

    This was called one of the toughest on-trail courses one competitor has seen. It was on trail, but the trails are complex and there is all of that climb in this park.

Saturday
Hillary Swift                                49:20        (Winner of a NOD baseball cap)
Katie William                              62:05
Greg & Justin Bishop                  80:20
Melinda & Jim Artmayer             83:40
Kathy Alsept                            127:55
Michael, Lauren & Julia Brissie      DNF

Sunday
Elizabeth White                           80:33         (Winner of a NOD baseball cap)
Oscar Ryland                              81:00
Ellie Kennedy                             95:40
Hayes Ryland                             97:45         (NOD winner of aBrunton 7DNL compass)
Niel & Michele Diemler               DNF

Orange Course

Saturday
Bill Greenwell                           106:25
Will Vaughan                              DNF
David Williams                           DNF

Sunday
Mike DeSantis                              71:40
Rob Rice                                      75:52
Nicole Brown & Robyn Gorman   79:52

Brown Course

Saturday
Bob Frey                                 Sporting Finish

Sunday
Claire Dell                                 78:08
Bill Greenwell                           107:00
Joyce Whalen                           129:13
Bobbi Sack                              Quit to assist lost first timers

Green Course

Saturday
Bill Swift                                    56:18
Sergei Preobrazhensky               96:34
Dick Arnett                              105:20
Brian DeYoung                        132:31
Alex Preobrazhensky               138:30

Sunday
Gerald Yip                                80:03
Bob Frey                                  92:00

Red Course

Saturday
Steve Barnhart                          75:20
Jon Rauschenbach                   107:30
Rob Rice                                 155:37

Sunday
Mike Minium                             77:07
Erick LeBreton                        103:42         (NOD winner of a Brunton 7DNL compass)
 

results of previous local event (Harbin Park, September 18, 2005)

results of next local event (Camp Stonybrook, October 9, 2005)

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