I developed writer's block, so Dick wrote up our first hosting of an event for me!
At the MiGO Winter Social, Basswood Bend and Dino Duo, (our friends Tim and Susie) were awarded silver coins for our contributions to geocaching. Both of us were thrilled but confused, what had we done to deserve the award?
Then Dennis of ss-dsk announced that he had to attend training in Grand Rapids to maintain his EMS certification the weekend that he had planned to hold his Second Annual Grayling Expo Meet and Greet and was asking for help. We had attended the first event last year and had a fun time. It was held in the lobby of the Days Inn next door to the Expo conference center. Misty, the Days Inn manager, offered to provide food and some prizes. Since Tim and Susie had volunteered to man the Geocaching booth at the Expo, we figured the least we could do would be to host the event.
We had a great MiGO cake made at Meijer, and got Pepsi and chips to go with Misty's sloppy joes and Susie's beans. For door prizes we put together a cache in an ammo can, one of our coins, and a stuffed fish, in case there were any kids there. Misty added a few items including the grand prize, a night in their finest Jacuzzi suite.
We think the event went well although attendance was slim. We were competing with the opening day of trout season and a big event on Mackinac Island. We think every one had a good time. It only ran from 11 to 1, and who can turn down a free lunch?
For the prize drawing, each person entered their name on a card. We decided that, rather than hold the Grand Prize to the end, we'd let each person chose their own prize and that way everybody had an equal chance. Well the drawing began and we were surprised! The first winner chose - - The Ammo Can! Well she lives in Grayling, is a young girl and said she'd probably not use the free night. The next winner chose - - Our Coin! The third winner chose - - The Fish! What's with geocachers anyway? We were getting embarrassed for Misty but she was laughing as much as we were.
Eventually the suite as well as all the other prizes were selected, even the little plastic boxes we had used to represent geocaches on the cake.
We had a good time on our first attempt at hosting an event and will probably do it again. We left Grayling earlier than we had planned because we were tired, drove straight home and crashed.
