Garmin is proud to help support Pass It On – Outdoor Mentors, a non-profit group that helps kids experience the thrill of the great outdoors. It's no secret that fewer kids are playing outside these days, and even less are being exposed to hiking, camping, geocaching, fishing, boating, and hunting.  That, in turn, helps contribute to childhood obesity, diabetes, and depression — not to mention a lost connection with a child's natural environment.

Pass It On aims to change that.  By matching caring adults who have a passion for the outdoors with children who don't typically have access to the outdoors, the Pass It On program allows kids to learn about a wide variety of outdoor activities in a safe environment.

Tonight and tomorrow, the group will host its largest fundraiser of the year, Bust-A-Clay for Kids' Sake at Flint Oak Lodge in central Kansas.  You can read more about the event here, and if you feel so compelled, you can donate through the Garmin team's fundraising page.

Source: Garmin
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Garmin Helps to Pass it On

We're still swapping KC Cache Dash stories, and one of our favorites involved a geocacher who went the distance just to get here. At OpenCaching.com, we'd known him best by his caching name, BakerGeckos, but we enjoyed meeting the man behind hundreds of hides and thousands of finds. Mike Baker traveled down from Sioux Falls, SD, for the Cache Dash and we had some great chats along the special caching course around Garmin's campus. And since Jake from our blog team had just done the KC-to-SFSD-and-back road trip the previous weekend (in which you hit four states in six or seven hours), we truly appreciated Mike making the journey. Here's what he had to say:

"I really enjoyed getting to meet with some of the people at Garmin, and really got the impression that Garmin cares about their customers. I walked around with the temporary caches and spoke with another Garmin employee who was willing to share how much he enjoys his employment and how much Garmin does for the community – it was great. I even ran into a few people that cache around the area and listened to their stories of how Garmin supports the local communities and how supportive they are regardless if it's Opencaching or geocaching. So over all I had a great time. Didn't do a lot of caches in the area but we shot for the stars and got a few nice ones. Thanks again for the great event."

Again, thank you Mike for trekking down to see us! It was a great reminder that the best part of caching events is getting to meet everyone in the community. And that brings us to the second topic of today's post: An awesome opportunity for anyone who loves caching and loves sharing that enthusiasm with others. This week we posted a new job opening for a Geocaching Community Coordinator, and we're looking for someone who is eager to connect with cachers in the community and work with fellow Garmin employees to fuel the growth of geocaching everywhere. If you're interested, visit the OpenCaching.com forum to learn more. We're looking forward to meeting the new member of the team!

Source: Garmin
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At OpenCaching.com: The Sioux Falls Supercacher and a unique job listing

Whenever you try something that hasn't been done – such as last month's KC Cache Dash geocaching race and expo – it can be as much of a challenge measuring the success as it was to plan the event in the first place. There's no standard metric for analyzing the effects of a social media-based treasure hunt that raises money for local charities while the community learns about geocaching by trying it for themselves. (Or at least nothing came up when I typed all of that in my search bar.)

So in the two weeks since the KC Cache Dash, I've been trying to quantify what happened that day. But upon reflection, the stats would be empty without the smiles on the faces of those affected. So here's my best shot at explaining both the math and the meaning behind a day that connected many within our local community:

Success is helping dozens of children in Kansas City get a bed of their own, which Sleepyhead Beds can do with their share of the prize money. Success is hearing that Project Uplift's mission of bringing food and essentials to the homeless in our community just took a huge leap forward through the efficent route planning of a donated Garmin nuvi. Success is seeing so many of the kids I spoke with the previous week at the YMCA's after-school camps show up with their parents, all of them eager to learn more about how OpenCaching.com can fuel a healthy lifestyle. Success is being told by KidsTLC that "well over a thousand homeless, teenagers and kids will benefit from this event." Success is seeing Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts canvassing Garmin's campus with their parents looking for caches. And success is seeing these great nonprofits all in one place sharing their stories and their objectives with each other and the community – and everyone talking about working together even more.

As for the "competition" angle of the day, it was easy to understand the feel-good sentiment that everyone felt they came out a winner. When four avid geocachers from the area started teaching several of my social media friends about geocaching, the highlights came too quickly to count as they scoured the city in tricked-out Land Rovers to find caches, tweet about the action and raise awareness for their respective charities. The action heated up immediately when my social media counterpart at Kansas City International Airport personally offered up a $100 donation to the charity of whichever team made it up north and found the airport's cache first.

Then as they got a little muddy and sweaty, the teams learned a bit about the varying degrees of difficulty, terrain and awesomeness displayed for each cache at OpenCaching.com. And because we wanted to keep everyone on their toes, our "social media commentary desk" egged them on through "flash cache" challenges and smack talk, making the #KCCacheDash hashtag the top locally trending topic all day (impressively topping #KUBBall for one day during the Jayhawks' stellar tournament run). And with the final score of our scavenger hunt all but decided, we watched on the GTU live tracking as one team took a final shot at glory and a big payday, knowing that being even a minute late to the finish line would cost half their points. Check out the recap video embedded here and see whether their hail mary paid off.

Making it clear that this great day was a group effort, about a hundred Garmin colleagues volunteered at the event, all of them eager to teach newcomers about geocaching and how to use our outdoor handhelds to find adventure at OpenCaching.com. We had product designers illustrating the many stages of how a device goes from an idea into production. Engineers answered questions, many of which came from an 8-year-old that I'd met days before at a YMCA Camp who had countless queries about how the satellites see us from space and exactly what materials go inside the devices to make them all work. Not sure what our minimum age is for an internship, but I've added his name to the can't-miss list. Bringing all of those answers full circle, our product support experts – the same great folks who are so helpful when you call on the phone – came out to teach visitors how to build caches and begin geocaching on our on-site course that stretched for more than a mile. And many of my friends in communications took part by lending their creative talents or attending with their families.

I guess the best sign of success is that everyone – from the nonprofits and scouts to the cachers and volunteers – immediately afterward began talking about how we can make the event bigger and better, teaching more people about OpenCaching.com and improving more lives through charitable donations. Any time the first comments about Year One are focused on looking forward to Year Two, I'll take it as a win.

Oh, and a young Superman was there. That could be tough to top next year. But we'll try.

Source: Garmin
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Jake’s Journal: Measuring success in many ways at KC Cache Dash

Tomorrow's KC Cache Dash and geocaching expos provide a unique way for Garmin's greater Kansas City community to come together – through the family fun of geocaching, through the connectivity of social media, and through the civic pride in supporting local nonprofit groups that work tirelessly to improve the lives of others. We asked our good friends at KidsTLC to share their story: 

Transforming Lives in Crisis is our passion at KidsTLC.  That passion brings our staff to work every day and drives us to work hard for the kids we serve. That passion means we never give up on any child, no matter how difficult or complicated their situation may seem.

At KidsTLC we believe that traumatized children given stability, safety, and hope can heal. We believe that the least we can do for children who have been abandoned, abused, neglected and thrown away, is to offer the opportunity to forge a healthy life for them.

Through our unique and highly respected residential Phoenix Program for kids who have been termed "treatment resistant," to Foster Care, Street Outreach Services to homeless teens, and our Family Case Management for domestic abuse, KidsTLC never stops looking for innovative ways to motivate kids to believe in themselves and their ability to overcome.

We have expanded to working with kids who have complex mental illness, and soon will offer autism services and outpatient behavioral health. We invite you to join us in transforming lives in crisis. See how this investment in lives brings incredible rewards.

Our rich 40 year history and our future are devoted to children and families in need of care. In these tough economic times when governmental spending cuts are decreasing services, we look to our donors and friends to help us to continue to serve those at risk. Won't you take a moment today to visit our website and make a donation? You won't regret it! Thanks!

Source: Garmin
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KC Cache Dash charity spotlight – KidsTLC: Transforming Lives in Crisis

As we prepare for Saturday's KC Cache Dash and free geocaching expo, we've been having fun introducing YMCA after-school groups to OpenCaching.com. So we asked our friends at the YMCA of Greater Kansas City to share their thoughts on what inspires them each day. Be sure to visit the links at the end to learn more about you can help them achieve these great goals.

Picture this: A community where everyone has the opportunity to become a healthy, successful adult. 

Is this possible? Yes, and the YMCA of Greater Kansas City is prepared to make this a reality through our commitment to youth development, healthy living and social responsibility.

But we can only achieve this vision if we work together. One way we’re working with the community is through the KC Cache Dash. The Y is excited to be the charity of choice for Team RRSport during the KC Cache Dash on Saturday, March 24.

The Y relies on the support of fundraising events like the KC Cache Dash and donations from individuals like you to help our community be the best place for all to learn, play and reach their fullest potential.

What inspires our Y to lead this movement?

Simple everyday experiences that the Y is part of and that WAY too many people don’t get to enjoy.

We’re inspired by more high school graduation parties…because that means our young people are reaching their potential and moving on to higher education. And not just high school graduation parties, but preschool graduation parties…because that means that more kids are starting grade school on an even playing field, prepared and ready for success.

We’re inspired by more kids learning how to swim…because that means more kids have the life-saving skills and confidence to avoid drowning, which remains the second-leading cause of unintentional death for children ages 1-14.

We’re inspired by more families breaking a sweat…because that means they are on their way to making healthy choices and reducing childhood obesity, a growing epidemic in which one in three children is overweight or obese.

We’re inspired by more kids going out in their neighborhoods for a pickup game of ball…because that means they have a safe place to play, they are physically able to play and they are friends with their neighbors. And for the Y, that means all kids—even those with special needs—having the opportunity to play.

If you join us to inspire others, we can build a better tomorrow for our communities.

Fundraising events and donations support the YMCA of Greater Kansas City’s Inspire [TOGETHER] fund. The fund provides financial assistance to give all in the community the opportunity to learn, grow and thrive at the Y, regardless of their financial resources.

To make an investment in a stronger community, visit http://bit.ly/DonateYMCA. Or sign up to make a difference as a volunteer at http://www.kansascityymca.org/social-responsibility/volunteer/apply-volunteer.

Source: Garmin
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KC Cache Dash charity spotlight – The YMCA: Join Us to Inspire a Stronger Community

The following is a blog post that Jake from Jake’s Journal did as a guest blogger for the YMCA of Greater Kansas City, one of the featured charities of Saturday’s KC Cache Dash and family expo at Garmin’s headquarters and Land Rover Merriam.

My goal is simple yet daunting: To get a brilliant, tech-savvy generation of kids off the couch and outside to play. If their parents, teachers and Scout leaders follow their lead, even better. But in my five years as a spokesman for Garmin International, one of the most rewarding benefits of my job is encouraging young people to learn, laugh and explore – all while getting exercise and gaining an appreciation for the world around us. The most effective way I’ve found is also one of the easiest: Geocaching. If you’ve never heard of geocaching, imagine a high-tech treasure hunt that introduces you to remote locations while you’re on vacation as well as hidden charms around your home. Adventurous spirits just like you have hidden containers of all sizes – called “geocaches” – in public areas, uploading the GPS coordinates and leaving them behind to be found by those familiar with the activity. And if this is new to you, you’re not alone. While it’s a wildly popular activity around the world, there are still fewer people out geocaching than those who don’t know it exists. So it’s quite likely there are caches in your neighborhood that you’ve walked by without ever realizing they’re there. We want you to find them. Through OpenCaching.com, geocaching is completely free for anyone who wants to give it a try. And in partnering with the YMCA of Greater Kansas City and other great nonprofit groups, the KC Cache Dash on March 24 is our unique attempt to shine the light on geocaching for a new audience while raising money and awareness for great local causes. And on that Saturday, I’ll be focusing on fun for the kids, and I have a very selfish reason.

My first experience geocaching was shortly after I started at Garmin, and I took my parents and my sister’s family out for a day in a local park. Our family has always been fairly active, but we’re also quick to justify taking a day off from exercise due to busy schedules or other commitments. My plan was to sneak in a “workout” without them even knowing it. So I explained the basics of geocaching: After downloading the cache locations to your GPS handheld and selecting them from the menu, you can easily navigate toward them. One key factor – and a great teaching tool when I work with classroom groups – is that the GPS device will help you get very close, but you still have to use your own brain and sleuthing skills to find it. In other words, technology is a tool – but you still need to think to achieve your goals.

So the hunt was on, and any inhibitions about searching for plastic containers in a city park quickly vanished when finding the first one sparked shrieks of delight. From my niece (11 at the time), my nephew (9) and their grandpa (older). It wasn’t long before we’d found four caches in various parts of the park, and it was time to break for a picnic. While walking back to the table, I answered their questions about when people can do this (any time the area is open to the public), who can do it (anyone) and how much it costs to play (nothing). And then I asked them a question: How far did they think we had just walked? They shrugged their shoulders, while clearly running through rough calculations, and offered answers of around a quarter-mile. Once around a school track, that would be a pretty decent walk. So I asked my nephew to check the Garmin watch he’d been wearing, which was measuring the time, speed and distance of every step, and he said: “Does that say 2.2 MILES??”

Like I said, my family is fairly active, but if I would asked my niece and nephew to go walk a couple miles with me, I would’ve been seen as one crazy uncle. Instead, they were clamoring for more.

So I hope you can see why I smile a bit every time I tell people about the March 24 KC Cache Dash expo, where kids and classrooms and troops and families can come out to Garmin headquarters in the morning or Land Rover Merriam in the afternoon to try out geocaching for themselves. It’s not often the whole city is invited to take part in a fun form of exercise, learn about technology and do it all for free. And if you’re a Scout, you could be on the path toward a geocaching merit badge as you’ll get a cache to take home and hide. Throw in the fact that we’re raising money and awareness for great local nonprofit groups, and I think we have a fun day ahead of us. And if you can’t make it out to join us, just log on to OpenCaching.com and check it out for yourself. It’s always fun, and it’s always free.  

For more information:

KC Cache Dash expo: March 24, free and open to the public: http://www.kccachedash.com

OpenCaching.com: Learn to cache and download caches for free: http://www.OpenCaching.com

Source: Garmin
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Jake’s Journal: Finding exercise and fun at OpenCaching.com and KC Cache Dash