Delaware Valley Orienteering Association

Topic created by camperpat on Sun Oct 18, 2015 at 7:49 am

camperpat
Num Posts: 394
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map: Hibernia
First O: 1999

IF YOU LOST  YOUR COMPASS, WE HAVE FOUND 2,  YOU CAN CLAIM THEM AT THE ELK NECK EVENT AT THE REGISTRATION DESK.  

Reply by bobburg on Sun Oct 18, 2015 at 11:57 am

bobburg
Num Posts: 200
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map: Batsto
First O: 1999

Today DVOA hosted an incredible event at Washington Crossing!  Hundreds of Scouts and JROTC cadets swarming all over the place, having a great time on a wonderful autumn day, and running through some of the best WashCrsg terrain.   

Last year the attendance doubled to nearly 600, and this year’s attendance probably topped 700!!   These are youth groups who are the future of orienteering with JROTC units such a perfect population to welcome and encourage – team-oriented, dedicated to physical fitness and improving their skills, and competitive by nature.  Thank you to all the groups who showed up.  You are what orienteering can build a future on.

DVOA volunteers showed up in volume way beyond who had promised their time.  I will certainly miss some names, so please forgive me if you elude my overloaded memory.  Many people served multiple roles, so after I laud the core staff, I will simply list the rest:

Pat and Bob Burton, who host the NJ Kit, showed up early, helped set up and served everywhere, from Registration to e-system team to the front lines of Start to anywhere they were needed.  They were everywhere. 

Mark Frank came early, supplying us with all sorts of extra equipment, which definitely upgraded our look, from first impression to staging area to Finish shoot, led instruction throughout the day, and left with a big smile on his face and lots of our gratitude. 

Doug White served as event ombudsman, wearing so many hats, from medals and port-o-potty procurement to control set-up on Friday to Parking Czar (wearing a right-fine neon-lime vest and stern but welcoming directions to all) to general all around assistance wherever needed.

Rick Slater brought his years of experience (he was the ED in the first many years of this event and CS for years after that) who organized Start (a 3-stage process with all the volume we had), managing a team that fluidly ranged from basic instruction to organizing cues that surpassed A-Event volume, lined up at each stage.

 Robert Hesketh, who served as the logistical bulls-eye of the day, fielding and downloading all the registration info pre-event, the fielding day-of changes and questions while juggling the e-system of 3 laptops throughout the event, managing the hundreds of youth (all needing e-sticks) as well as all the unruly general orienteering community.  :-)        

Jerry Smith, who took over the WashCrsg ED from Rick in earlier years and has graciously served as Registrar since he “retired” to central PA, and who converted all the pre-registration material into useable data for Robert to convert to computer-speak, once again supplying his legendary hot soup on a crisp autumn day for all volunteers (thank you very much), and serving as a voice of experience and calm and welcome at scout and jrotc sign-in while so much was going on around us.

One special thank you to our e-staff….yes staff.  Helping Robert throughout the day (which was probably the only way Robert maintained his sanity) was Andrea Hartley, Sam Kolins, and Kathy Urban, with Vadim finishing the day at Robert’s side (plus all the ancillary help of many others throughout the day).  We wore out all the laptops, both red and blue batteries, red and blue e-sticks, plus OUSA’s rental kit of e-sticks.  Just glancing over to “event central” exhausted me.  So thank you all many times over.

Since it seemed that I saw so many people popping up in new and changing roles throughout the day, please just let me list them all (or nearly all, I’m sure I’ll miss someone) with no particular job description:  Besides all the volunteers already mentioned, Roger Hartley, Lena Kushleyeva, Dave Urban, Lisa Carter, Len and Patty Pollicelli, Bob Acosta, Bob Rycharski, Petr Hartmann, Dave Morgan, Ann MacMullan, Olga Baronova, Ed Neimuth, with a special thank you to Mac who wandered in from his course and immediately performed the magic trick of materializing a young cadet who had been missing for way too long. 

That was one amazing day you all delivered.  Thank you.

 

Reply by DougW on Sun Oct 18, 2015 at 2:57 pm

DougW
Num Posts: 18
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map: Crows Nest Preserve-French Creek
First O: 2010

Awesome event!

I would like to mention Lena Kushleyeva who acted in the position of co-parking czar.  Thank you!

A hammer was left behind on one of the benches under the pavillion. Let me know if it yours and I will get it back to you.

Doug W

Reply by hughmac4 on Tue Oct 20, 2015 at 9:13 am

hughmac4
Num Posts: 182
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map:
First O: 1976

RouteGadget Up!

Reply by anniemac on Tue Oct 20, 2015 at 9:29 am

anniemac
Num Posts: 168
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map:
First O: 0

What a great day in the woods!  The Brown course was really enjoyable, weather was perfect, and Pat's hot chocolate and Vadim's spanikopita saved me at the end.  Thanks to all the trusted volunteers! See you guys at Elk Neck I hope.