May 3 – OUSA Board of Directors Meeting
The next meeting of the Orienteering USA Board of Directors will take place on May 3 at 8:00pm EST via Google Meet. Link to join the meeting can be found on the agenda.
Author: Clint Morse
Wisconsin and Idaho based Clubs garner 2020 Wilson Community Growth Grants
Congratulations to Badger Orienteering Club (BGR) and City of Trees Orienteering Club (CTOC), the 2020 Wilson Community Growth Grant winners. Grantees receive $1,000 to be used for equipment and development projects. Nominated by Derek MacKenzie and John Murray respectively, winners were chosen through a selective process after a delay due to Covid-19. Established in 2016, the Wilson Community Growth Grant seeks to develop and implement programs aimed at expanding access to orienteering for youth. Read more about the 2020 awardees in the official press release.
Photo credits: Charlie Shabazian, Jen Fafinski
And don’t miss out, a little less than a week remains to apply for the 2021 Iain Wilson Character Through Competition Award and the Wilson Community Growth Grants. Each program includes a $1,000 payment to support individual or community-based youth Orienteering programs. Apply by April 30 via the links below,
- Individual Award – complete online or download and send
- Community Growth Grant – complete online or download and send
Email iainwilsonaward@nullcomcast.net or click here to learn more about the Awards and their impact.
California O-Fest moved to 2023
California Orienteering Festival 2021 has been moved to 2023.
In its place a new Tahoe 2021 event that encompasses the same range of dates is planned. This new event will include the 2021 US Orienteering Champs and NA Rogaining Championships {pending sanctioning}.Difficult decision to be sure, but this allows the CalOFest to still be held, albeit a few years down the line, and yet still allows a quality series of summer events this year for those able to travel to California.
WTOC 2021 Postponed to 2022
The World Trail Orienteering Championships, originally scheduled for July in Poland, have been postponed to July 19-23, 2022 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Read more at International Orienteering Federation.
Puzzle Friday: Georgia O-Fest Redux
Happy Friday everyone! While I’ve got Georgia on my Mind, we might as well put the media to good puzzle use. Map of Sunday’s Blue course along with some photos taken by GAOC member Lisa Frost. Have a great weekend!
2021 Georgia O-Fest Video Updates
A couple of videos from the Georgia Orienteering Festival (GAOC) held last weekend have been uploaded to the OUSA Facebook and YouTube channels. The first video is a minimally edited assemblage of clips featuring OUSA Junior Team members in action.
The second video highlights the Southeastern Interscholastic Orienteering Championships held in conjunction with the O-Fest.
In addition, Orienteering USA has uploaded much of the raw, unedited video footage to a Google Drive for downloading by schools, clubs and individuals to utilize in creating derivative media for publicity. The majority of clips are sorted/titled by date, school, bib# and name to facilitate identifying useful content. Any media used should credit/tag Orienteering USA. The content in these folders will be deleted at the end of April, so grab any clips you want now.
Puzzle Friday: LAOC Easter Egg Hunt
Well we made it to the end of another week. And still 4 days left to participate in Photo-O at Lake Balboa. Match the pictures to the map and find the easter egg in each image. Submit your results online by midnight on Monday, April 5th. You can get a taste with our weekly online puzzle below. (Tip: Expand the puzzle to full-screen to play)
YMP Map of the Month – March 2021
The Youth Mapping Program Map of the Month for March 2021 features a map of Roughout Ranch in Redding, California produced by YMP mapper Bob Bolz.
The Roughout Ranch Foundation provides meaningful opportunities for vulnerable children and special needs clients through life skills and equine assisted activities. The organization is looking forward to adding self-confidence skills through navigation on their new map of the property.
National Event Updates
New dates have been confirmed for a couple of 2020 events that were postponed due to the pandemic.
The New England Championships, a classic two-day event to be held at Willard Brook SF in Massachusetts will be held October 2-3, 2021.
Run the Rotary, a one-day NRE to be held near Albany, NY will be held on May 14, 2022.
Click the event bar in the full schedule for more details.
Reminder: Regular registration for next months Georgia O-Fest ends tomorrow evening.
Puzzle Friday: Georgia O-Fest 2021
Hopefully you’ve heard the news that the Georgia O-Fest is on for three days of national competition over the weekend of April 9-11. So we’ll celebrate the return of multi-day competition with a Puzzle Friday feature for you. Have a great weekend and hope to see you in Georgia three weeks from today!