Et cetera : Treasure Hunting in Texas

Olivia and a young geocacher sign a geocache’s logbook.

Spruce Four gathered near a Denton landmark.

By: Tyler Overfelt

On Wednesday, March 25, AmeriCorps NCCC FEMA Corps team Spruce Four embarked on a geocaching expedition to learn about their new home in Denton, Texas. For a few hours after work, the team met some of the FEMA staff and scoured downtown Denton for film canisters hidden in bushes, lampposts, and under rocks.

An outdoor activity involving several thousand hobbyists, geocaching involves searching for small containers concealed in non-descript locations using clues if necessary. As the group found new locations, Spruce Four’s members took turns adding “S4” to the long list of people who had previously found the cache. When the evening grew darker, the team and some of their points of contact in FEMA shared dinner at a nearby restaurant.

Daniel Olson, Spruce Four’s Service Learning Initiator, heard the staff planning the excursion and suggested that the team tag along. “I thought it would be greatly beneficial for the team to meet and get to know some of the employees from FEMA,” Daniel mentioned after the event. “Things like this show that service learning activities can be fun.”

Teammate Tahnee Grant is now definitely convinced that these learning opportunities can be exciting. The team specializes in geospatial information systems, so an activity from GPS coordinates provides “an opportunity to do something that relates to what we do every day, but outside of an office.” As she sums the event up, “It was really cool, and I would totally do it again!”