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)
return to results index
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