Congratulations to Peter Goodwin of Up North Orienteers (UNO), the recipient of the 2025 Silva Award, Orienteering USA’s highest honor for service to the sport.
Orienteering Cincinnati nominates Peter Goodwin for the Silva Award. Peter is the former President of Orienteering USA with a long history of advocacy for US Orienteering. He organized a series of mapping and lidar clinics at NREs in the years prior to Covid. He is a long-time OUSA course consultant, where he has advised OCIN and many other OUSA clubs on their national ranking events. His work has been instrumental in making OUSA NRE courses more interesting and age-level appropriate, contributing to the success of our national-level events. It is recorded in OUSA board meeting minutes that Peter verbally guaranteed the OUSA Loan to BAOC for their 10-day NAOC and California O-Fest event held near Truckee and Lake Tahoe. Peter’s support helped ensure the success of this event that later experienced significant disruption to their financial planning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting delays.
The Silva Award is given annually to an orienteer who, along with being a member of Orienteering USA, has demonstrated outstanding service to orienteering in the United States over the past five years. The recipient need not be a terrific orienteer, and orienteering skill is not considered in determining the award winner. The essential quality of every winner has been service to promoting and sustaining orienteering, to making the sport work in this country, and in helping to build the organizations needed to make orienteering successful.