I chose to be a chapter rep probably at the worse time. It was fun to plan gatherings, volunteer and meet up with geocachers but it was so hard to find time to host gatherings between my new job and working on the rental house. Life was busy - plain and simple. I was so ready for it to slow down a little bit. I missed my weekends.
I had corresponded with TheDips (Riley and Karen) about ideas of where to host an indoor Community Celebrations Event with the SW Chapter geocaching account. They told me the public library would be perfect and that I could have their reservation. I told them they didn't have to abandon their event for mine. They wanted to so I asked them what I needed to do to make it happen. I got onto the library's website and followed the instructions. I then, worked on my geocaching page and made sure I got it submitted as soon as possible. I had to have it in two weeks in advance for the volunteers to accept it. I chose to do a hot chocolate and candy canes event because I've never been to a geocaching event like that before.
Karen and Riley submitted their event for earlier that same day except at the park in Kettle View, just off of Yelm Highway. They let me know that they were going to do a Winter Solstice Cache Exchange if people wanted to bring their extra containers they weren't using and share them with the caching community if they wanted them.
I slept in a little bit, ate some breakfast, went for a walk in the park and made sure I had all of my stuff ready and put into the Escape before I left to go to Karen and Riley's event. I headed over because that parking lot fills up fast and I wanted a spot. The weather was cold, rainy and the wind was gusty. I am thankful that the park has a covered area to hide under. Ben decided not to go but would meet me at the library later for my event.
The event started at noon, and I got there about a half hour early. I had a parking spot, made sure I had all my warm clothes on and walked over to the covered area. Karen and Riley were getting the area ready for the event. I helped them cover the picnic table. They had a bunch of containers to get rid of. I signed the logbook and waited until more people arrived. They asked me what I've been up to. You know, work, rental house and generic life stuff. Then the conversation merged into geocaching and geocaching trips.
More people arrived as it got closer to noon. It was nice to see people I haven't seen in a while. Lots of fun chats and stories. Karen and Riley started off the event by welcoming everyone and were sorry the weather was so terrible. They singled out Frisbee'r (Dan) and gave him a special holiday trackable. He was very moved by the gift. Then they raffled off containers and no one left empty handed. About 20 people came to their event and braved the yucky weather.
I stayed until about 1 and then went home to make sure I had everything for my event in the Escape. Just before 3, I stopped by Walmart to pick up a few things and then drove to downtown Olympia. A couple geocachers arrived early and once we got our room, which was after my scheduled start time, one of the library staff members had a hard time finding the keys to unlock the room, they helped me bring in everything from the Escape. Ben arrived shortly after and he helped me set up the room.
We had people sign the logbook and told them that the hot chocolate and candy canes were up for grabs if they wanted some. Surprisingly, a bunch of people participated in the hot chocolate. We sat around, chatted and enjoyed each other's company. I had Ben walk around the room and get pictures of people hanging out. We had about two dozen people show up - even two cachers from Eastern Washington, Brad and Steve. They were driving all over the state picking up random CCE caches. This was my second ever event I've hosted, and I feel like it was successful!
I thanked everyone for coming out and once our time ran out, we packed up everything and left it better than we found it. We let the library staff know that we were done and thanked them for letting us use the room for our event.
From there, I drove out to Tumwater to meet up with our friends for our Christmas party. We had a great time eating food, playing our Christmas themed games and laughing a lot. Until next year!
Next Adventure: Figgy and Russ Do Determinations
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