"THE GREATEST INTERNATIONAL SCAVENGER HUNT THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN"

 

 

On the surface it's the world’s largest scavenger hunt. Just below the surface, GISHWHES is about creating art, pushing boundaries, perpetrating acts of kindness and, ultimately, redefining our perception of "the possible.” Participants have collectively broken 5 Guinness world records, committed over 93,000 random acts of kindness and fed thousands of the homeless. Perhaps just as importantly, they have been officially rebuked by NASA, transmuted watermelons into high fashion, forced airports to close because of floating Christmas trees in flight paths, perplexed Larry King and constructed sculptural masterpieces from sanitary napkins.

 

In playing this game, this GISHWHES, we are briefly disrupting the normal order of things. When we see a nun, arms raised, gleefully racing down a waterslide, our world is momentarily shaken. We respond by laughing at these incongruous things. But who says that nuns shouldn’t be on waterslides? Who says we shouldn’t try to talk to astronauts on the space station? Who says we shouldn’t tour particle accelerators in costume? By doing these unexpected things we’re actually in a strange way being reminded that life is full of possibility. A nun on a waterslide is a reminder that we don’t need to “fit in." A nun on a waterslide is a reminder that we do not need to be confined by an arbitrary normalcy. We can choose freedom. We can carve out our own path. We can actually talk to a homeless person on the sidewalk or we can gather the courage to sing in public. An entirely different version of reality is open to us if we make ourselves available to it.

 

 

In adulthood opportunities for wonder are curtailed. We often unwittingly sign on to a set of interpretations, rules for behavior, and ideas about our world and ourselves. We go into a shopping mall, pay the cashier, and leave the store. We know how the interaction will go; we’re on autopilot. And decades from now, when we lie breathing our last breaths on artificial respirators, we may wonder:

 

“What was that? Was that a life? Was my life something that I did or was my life something that was done to me?”

 

EVERY YEAR THE HUNT AND IT'S PARTICIPANTS ARE THE SINGLE LARGEST CONTRIBUTOR TO THE CHARITY RANDOM ACTS (registered charity number US EIN #: 04-3276521) THE CHARITY HAS PERFORMED SOME AMAZING FEATS INCLUDING THE BUILDING OF THE JACMEL CHILDRENS CENTRE AND THE REBUILDING OF HUNDREDS OF HOMES IN HAITI FOLLOWING THE DEVASTATING EARTHQUAKE IN 2010.

FUTURE PROJECTS INCLUDE HELPING TO MAKE THE FREE HIGH SCHOOL IN SAN JUAN DEL SUR, NICARUGA MORE ACCESSIBLE FOR THE CHILDREN AND THE BUILDING OF A BRAND NEW HUMAN DEVELOPMENT CENTRE TO SUPPORT DISADVANTAGED ADULTS OF THE AREA.

 

YOU CAN FIND OUT MORE ABOUT RANDOM ACTS AT http://www.randomacts.org

 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE HUNT ITSELF AND TO SEE PREVIOUS YEARS SUBMISSIONS FROM LOTS OF TEAMS VISIT https://www.gishwhes.com