 Last February, our library launched a city-wide geocaching game, true partnerships with local businesses and the Livermore Area Parks and Recreation District, or LARPD. The game was part of our month-long Livermore Reads Together community reading program. During the ninth Livermore Reads Together, the community read and enjoyed programs related to Peter Mayo's novel, A Good Year. It's a light-hearted read, and it's about the business and pleasure of wine, which is a big part of Livermore. It's also set in France, so our program had a nice French theme to it. We made this geocaching game relevant to the themes of the book by selecting two wineries, a French bakery, and our main library as geocache sites. We also chose two spots at Livermore's Sycamore Grove Park as locations for the game. The community enjoyed this fun and unique library program, and a number of people want us to do it again, and we will, I'm thinking, as part of another Livermore Reads Together. To give you an idea of what geocaching is, I'd like to show a 75-second video that is on geocaching.com. Geocaching is an any-day, any-time adventure that can take you to amazing and beautiful places, or even just to a place in your town that you've never been before. There are 2 million geocaches worldwide. There are probably even some near you right now. Yes, you! To start finding them, just get out your phone or GPS. Go ahead, I'll wait. Then, create a free geocaching account and you're ready to go. The way it works is simple. Just choose the geocache that you want to find, then navigate to its location. What you're looking for varies. Geocaches come in different sizes, shapes, and difficulties. Geocaching isn't always easy, so it's okay to get excited when you discover the cache. After finding it, sign the logbook, trade knick-knacks if you want, and log your find online. When you're done, just put the geocache back where you found it, and you're on to the next one. Uh, hey, it's the other way. There's an adventure happening all the time, all around you. Become a part of it at geocaching.com. Geocaching is a modern-day treasure hunt. The object of the game is to use GPS coordinates and clues to locate a hidden cache, or a geocache canister, like this one. You can get cost $21.99 on geocache.com, and the Friends of the Livermore Library was generous enough to fund our game as part of Livermore Reach Together. You can download a free mapping app if your smartphone doesn't already come with one, but it probably comes with one already, such as Google Maps or Apple Maps. You can also go to Google Maps' website to enter the coordinates and map the location if you don't want to use a smartphone. We dubbed our geocaching adventure the Hunt for the Golden Chalice to give it an Indiana Jones feel. Nathan, Bromley, and I hid six caches in various locations in town. The locations were about a few miles driving distance between them. Livermore is also a nice bike town, so many participants rode their bikes to get to the locations. Inside or on the cache was the clue and coordinates for the next cache you needed to find. The goal was to locate the successive containers until you get to the last cache with the Golden Chalice, which is actually a picture of a Golden Chalice. We couldn't get funding for an actual Chalice. Before the game launched, we held a geocaching 101 presentation by Nathan at the library to give people the basics of geocaching, talk to them about rules and etiquette, and also get them excited and oriented about the library's geocaching adventure. On February 1st, participants of all ages were able to sign up and create an account on the library's geocaching webpage. Our website guru redesigned our summer reading page using evans and turned it into our geocaching webpage. Imagine you were a participant. When you located a cache, you would sign the logbook. Take note of the clue and coordinates to the next cache, log into your account using your smartphone or a computer, and enter the geocache number and the brief description of the location. After you have successfully logged all six locations, then we entered you to a raffle for a chance to win prizes. So thanks to the Friends of the Livermore Library for giving us funding for the prizes. So we got six Livermore Valley wine country maps. We raffled it out. Two DVD copies of Ratatouille for the kids who played and completed the game, and the grand prize, which anyone who finished the game could win, was a $60 RAI gift card. Raffle winners were randomly chosen and announced in the first week of March. So inside the cache, you would find a card, which I also taped on the cache, just in case somebody mistakenly took it. It had the clue and coordinates to the next cache. And the clue was written by Nathan Bromley. The clues are written by Nathan Bromley and my co-worker, librarian Blanche Angelo. And there are the coordinates. We also placed little giveaways and library bookmarks inside the cache. And in addition, there was a message inside the cache telling people that this is a cache for the Livermore Reads Together geocaching adventure. It described what the game was. It also included the library's contact information. A QR barcode that participants can scan with their mobile device to take them directly to the geocaching page. And this was the home page for our library's geocaching website where participants could sign up, log their progress, and most importantly, leave comments. It had helpful links, rules, and our, like I said, this is on events and our website guru redesigned it. Here's a flyer that we created for advertising the game. We use social media to promote the game and Peach Jar. Everyone familiar with Peach Jar? So we also use Peach Jar for this. We emphasize that it's for all ages and posted flyers in our teens in our children's areas. So these caches were like seeds of partnerships and we had good partners for this game, such as Lenore and Richard, the owners of, pardon my French, Cascrutte Bakery in Livermore, Lindsey Knight, Tasting Room Manager at Wenty Vineyards, Debbie Christiano who works at the Tasting Room at Page Mill Winery, and Ranger Amy Wolzer of LARPD. She was our main contact at Sycamore Grove Park. These community partners were more than happy to be a part of Livermore Reach Together and our geocaching adventure. It was good publicity for them. They appreciated the added business that this game brought to their establishments. We were literally telling people to go to there and they helped us with monitoring the caches, letting us know the status of the caches and even being a friendly and supportive presence to participants who practically invaded their space for an entire month. It was truly a win-win situation. We helped promote their establishments and they helped us by being a part of the program and promoting Livermore Reach Together. So, I would like to take you on a virtual tour of the geocaching adventure. Let's take a look at the clues and coordinates and locations in the game. So, we released the first clue and coordinates on our library's website. The clue read, grapes cluster on divine, books crowd upon the shelf, smart searchers look behind the place to educate oneself. And there's the coordinates. So, the game began at our main library. Behind our building is a little vineyard and we placed the cache under some bushes in that area. So, congratulations. You found the first one. Now you're ready to find the second cache and the second clue reads, Livermore is known for its wineries. Just check the white pages for dineries. But to narrow it down and prevent a chore, search near the mill where the bottles pour. There's the coordinates and that will lead you to Page Mill Winery and the cache was right behind there, the barrel. And Debbie Christiana who works at Page Mill Winery included coupons inside the cache. That's good for, to welcome people and inviting them to go to the tasting room. So, there's the win-win. Right? So, onwards to cache number three and the cache number three, it reads, At this local temple to Bacchus, summer shows can be quite raucous. Searchers will find their reward where the Sauvignon Blanc is poured. The clue and coordinates would take you to Wentee Winery. Outside is their estate tasting room and there's a nice patio area there and right below this commemorative plaque, this is where Lindsay Knight suggested that we place the cache. And just for fun, I, incognito, I hang around there just watching people, like families, like with their phones. And then I would see kids, like when they find it, it's like finding an Easter egg hunt. Like, yeah, yeah, we found it, we found it. So, now you've, okay, where are we? So, onwards to cache number four and the clue reads, Craving pan and some fromage. The cache eludes you, Keldommage. Just follow the scent of hot café to the place where the oven is warm all day. And that's the French bakery in downtown Livermore and there's Richard and Lenore welcoming you. And with their help, we hid it in their, they had a nice outdoor eating area and the cache was right there. So, maybe you'll celebrate with some croissant or beverage and plan your trek to cache number five. So, you're nearing the end and closer than you know. Park on the north side where the sycamores grow. Venture into the grove and just over the brook stop where the trolls customarily live and have a look in Sycamore Grove Park and just at the end of this footbridge we've placed the cache right there. So, now you just have one more to go but you don't have to go very far because about a mile and a half from that bridge is a popular Sycamore tree that everybody calls the Hobbit Tree and that's where we hid the golden chalice. And here's the clue. Squirrels will come and squirrels will go and searchers will search high and low flitting here and there on a lark success depends on where you bark. So, here's the Hobbit Tree right there and the cache was placed right underneath that tree there. Okay, so the program ran from February 1st to February 28th. 83 people registered, 31 youth and 52 adults, 34 participants successfully completed the game and the 8-1 the random raffle and our youngest winner was Nick who found the golden chalice and got to take home Ratatouille. Look how happy he was. And here is our grand prize winner, Donna Davis who did the game with her granddaughter, Caitlin. I wanted to emphasize that this was a family affair. This was really popular with families. They did it through the weekends most of the time and so kids and families would join them in this quest. And other happy participants including our library board member who celebrated finding the last cache by the Hobbit Tree with his buddy by reading a copy of A Good Year and enjoying a glass of wine and even staff members joined in the fun although they couldn't qualify for the raffle. They just did it just to check it out and they had fun. So is it worth it? Was it worth it doing this game? Just seeing these comments and this was a notepad. This was at the last cache and these are people who found the last cache and they signed the logbook and this little child drew a picture of the Hobbit Tree and there's a left. I love this place. It's awesome. Happy faces. I love these comments. This is the best one here. The owner came out and congratulated us on the find. This is from someone who found the cache at the French Bakery and this is what it's all about. This is partnership, businesses and patrons and coming together and enjoying a library program and this is also my favorite. This is a parent who left this comment after they completed the game and found the cache by the Hobbit Tree. She said, my son will now always talk about it as the tree with the treasure inside. So we're definitely going to do this again. We hope that other libraries will organize their own geocache adventure in their neighborhoods. Lessons to learn though. Get more extra caches because we ended, we did lose over time three caches but I had two as backups. The first one was at the Wenty Winery before the game started I went to check it out. It wasn't there so I quickly replaced it with our backup cache and then I called, I spoke to Lindsay and just alerted her to it and she alerted her staff and that worked. And then on the third week, was that the third week Nathan? The cache at the foot bridge at Sycamore Grove disappeared. So we replaced it with the other cache and we talked to Ranger Amy who said just keep an eye out on it, make sure it's still there and no coyotes or squirrels took it. And on the final week the last cache went missing. But you always have to improvise and you can use a Tupperware as a cache. So I just quickly replaced it with this one place it back where the three is and put some labels in it and people didn't seem to mind. It was just they were happy whatever it looked like they found it and they left like little trinkets and a notepad there with notes, messages, notes thanking us for the game. So the next time we do it we'll definitely have a team of volunteers to check on the caches regularly because it ended up I live in Livermore and Nathan lives in Livermore so we didn't really mind checking on the caches like I would check on the caches while I'm jogging or at Sycamore Grove but it kind of got old. So it's best to get some help recruit teen or adult volunteers and maybe assign them to a particular cache and say okay you're assigned to this cache so check on it. If something happens to it if you notice it's missing then come tell me and I'll give you a new one. And you don't have to do it for an entire month we just did it true because Livermore reached together we wanted to coincide it with the program. We didn't do it for a week or maybe a long weekend several days. Keep it simple but fun. I think we're the only library to ever be crazy enough to do this. But we hope that we're not the only ones. So if you're planning to do it just send me an email and I'll give you some helpful advice. You can also go on geocaching.com which is a good resource and ask Nathan. It was his idea. Thank you. Five minutes. Okay we've got five minutes for questions. No questions. All right. Going once. Excellent. Where the cache caches inside the library or in an outdoor setting? All outdoors. All outdoors. Yeah. Because we wanted people to get to it without it easily. So yeah. They're all outdoors and makes it easier. Yeah go ahead. Just curious when people took the geocache didn't they take the little sign-in sheet? Right but I had it on it's just it's on publisher so I just printed it out and I had extra of the strips slapped it on and Oh the sign-in sheets. Oh yeah unfortunately people took the sign-in sheets but they also logged in online on the geocaching website that's how we kept track of it but it was too bad losing those log books though. Yeah. Another one in the back. Okay. Was there anything inside the geocache the cache besides the the journal, the log book? Well there's also the let's see I put a pencil inside so people can fill out the log books somebody left seeds in there I also had the so the cards were loose inside the with the clue and coordinates to the next cache so it was just loose there I was just paranoid so I taped it on the on the canister too and that way people can see it and so here's the message and when you find it just scan the QR barcode and log in. The panel before you talked about how drinking was naughty did anybody have any reservations about going to wineries with their kids? Yeah there were a couple of comments about that but they weren't inside the tasting room they were just and you know you don't have to bring your kids inside the tasting room you can just enjoy the surrounding area there in the patio and also this was part of Livermore Reads Together celebrating Peter Mayo's wine novel and we wanted there was a challenge to how to bring in kids and teens to the theme of the program so we thought a geocaching game would be a good way to go so maybe next time we won't do wineries maybe see next time we can pick different locations different businesses and different opportunities for partnerships so it was just the theme was wine and we wanted to highlight the wineries of Livermore which is a big part of the economy there. Hi did you have to register your six sites on the geocaching.com site? No we didn't go through geocaching.com because we made our own rules and because the caches were temporary not permanent March 1st we took it all back and closed the site did the raffle so but if you want to do a permanent cache you can register it to geocaching.com more people can find it Thank you Thank you