Discussion: Orienteering themed birthday parties

Do any clubs host birthday parties for kids? IE…parents must get bored of same birthday parties, willing to pay for parties, and could introduce née kids/families. Curious if anyone has tried this? Would expect that it’s something that would be paid (and be a job for a teenager / young adult to host). Could use same map / same course. Include some cake and something like maze-o for extra fun.

Just curious…

First up on Google

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/efielding79/jacks-orie...

I think this would be a great idea. We have always incorporated orienteering into Alex's birthday parties (until this year just mapping the garden and having a small treasure hunt). This year we started in the local park and did a loosely minecraft themed explore round the park and back to ours as a group. He is a bit anti-orienteering at the moment (age 9) but all his friends love it!

Check with Barb, maybe? I wouldn't be surprised if Nav Games had a model for this.

We've done them as a family around our home, but I hadn't thought of it as an organized club offering before. It's a good idea, especially for clubs with juniors.

Chris Cassone's operation has probably done this at times.

From memory there was a birthday party that attended one of our sprint events on a semi-bush map in WA (Aus). I mainly recall it because as organiser for the MTBO event the following day, I had to wait around for an extraordinary amount of time to collect the gear (I think the setter let them go an hour overtime). We ended up starting control hanging in the dark, then my partner got a flat battery and was forced to sleep in the car on course whereas I rode back to our tent and slept there, then sent a rescue party to fetch her in the morning.

Anyway the event wasn't organised for the birthday but they seemed to think it was a good idea and came anyway.

@LOST: Nice - I'll definitely have some of those compass cookies, please!

I buried gift bags of candy in a treasure chest (aka rubbermaid tub) in the snow at one of my daughter’s birthday parties when she was much younger then gave the kids a map of a few controls which was meant to be a treasure map showing the possible places the treasure was buried. So the kids navigated to each location then started digging and repeated until they found it. here is a link :

http://waddsquad.blogspot.com/2007/01/pirates-of-c...

https://treasurehuntadventures.com/
Chris is located in CA these days I think.
None better.

https://ultimatetreasurehunts.com/about-us/
Deb Humiston of UNO has a model similar to Chris

Not by coincidence, Deb and Chris have worked together in the past.

In 2018, NEOC had a birthday party for ~ 10 8 year olds at one of the youth outreach events. We worked with the parent to organize. They used the event activities: Tarzan string course that Pia Webb set through undergrowth and then moved on to the white course. Then they did their own thing for the rest of the event (cake, etc). We charged them the group rate. It was at Beaver Brook in Waltham.