News/Media

Orienteering Maps and Training for facilitation at www.northernoutdoors.com September 2007

Ultimate Treasure Hunts conjoins with www.rosekennedygreenway.org to create maps and games for families including high-tech pod cast treasure hunts and simple clue based games for Opening Day Ceremonies 2008 and now summer 2009

-Recipient of 21st Century Grant Monies from the Department of Education, Watertown, MA to design and implement Orienteering Immersion Program for the Summer School, June 2006

-New Hampshire Brief’s article in Business NH Magazine, November 2006

-Created “The Search for SpongeBob”, a public treasure hunt in Manhattan where participants listened to clues on Z100 and navigated around the city to locate 100$ gift certificates.

-Featured in Seacoast New Hampshire’s summer guide 2007. Look for the interactive treasure hunt and win a prize!

Xscape, Seacoast Newspapers Inc., (Excerpt from) October 23, 2002 by Sarah Newbury

"The ability not to go too fast is crucial. The minute you go too fast you are missing something," said Deb Humiston who was hosting an event for Up North Orienteers - a New Hampshire based club - on the same Sunday in Rochester. "And it's amazing what happens to you out there when you get fatigued and mentally you can't make sense of the map."

Humiston's event was a Rogaine designed for long distance endurance orienteering. It was 8 hours long - though Rogaine's are often around the clock, lasting up to 24 hours. Humiston is this year's Northeastern orienteering champion for her age group. And orienteering is also her job - she teaches orienteering in schools and attends parties to demonstrate the skill and lead treasure hunts.
"There are a lot of kids out there who are very bright but they are intimidated by the popular American sports. They are intimidated by what's cool - playing Varsity. I can always see who those kids are. They’re the ones who are asking pertinent questions and are independent thinkers," Humiston said the day after Rogaine, as she fished through a box of maps in the back of her silver van - many that she designed herself. A bumper sticker on her back windshield reads, "Give me a map and I'm magic."She talked about how people find their niche in orienteering. Anyone can start orienteering, at any time. Every orienteering event has a beginner's division. Orienteering can be a lot of relocating and backtracking at first. Even experts need to retrace their steps once in a while if they can't find their way.

"Life is a map," Humiston said. "When you get lost, you can't follow others. It's making decisions and sticking it out, or going back when you last knew where you were." About 35,000 people in the United States orienteer on a regular basis. And orienteers say that it is a sport for a lifetime. Orienteering happens on foot, on skis, on bikes, on horseback and in canoes. And the fun of it is that your way may be different from everyone else's. And that it can be an ordeal just to find it.
"The most fun of the game is afterwards, the camaraderie and comparing notes. It doesn't even matter how you placed - it's 'What was your route choice, your split?' or 'I didn't even see that reentrant.

"And there are competitions all over the globe, it takes me places I wouldn't normally go." Humiston said.
Orienteering is the "thinking sport", according to an orienteering brochure that also came from the depth of the boxes in the back of Humiston's van.
"I love the feeling when my mind settles into a map," Humiston said. "When I'm in a new place, and the features don't fit - but after a control or two, I settle in."

Granite State News Wolfeboro -

On September 24 and 25, Deb Skelley's and Barb Giroux's physical education classes at Kingswood Regional Middle School were introduced to the Olympic sport of orienteering by Deb Humiston, a U.S. rank orienteer, instructor, adventure racer, and map producer. According to Humiston, most people are introduced to orienteering through scouts, where they learn a type of wilderness navigation used by the military.

"The compass often overwhelms people with numbers, angles, and pace counting. For class, this orienteering game is based on reading a map for the excitement of finding flags, 'controls', and having a fun adventure! People don't even realize what a practical skill they are acquiring when they orient a map and actually make note of their surroundings. Being aware of what is around you is the first and most important skill."

On the first day, Humiston showed an orienteering video, produced in Sweden and the US. She also brought in the uniform, equipment, map, and compass that she uses in the competition. Humiston says, "It isn't the fastest road runner, but the most consistent navigator."

Most Americans aren't familiar with orienteering as a sport. In Sweden, students in kindergarten learn how to orienteer. Sweden is ranked number 1 in the world in world geography. Orienteering also teaches a lot more than map and compass skills. It's a sport where one can push one's self to one's own limit.

On day two, the students returned for a lesson outside with Humiston's hand drawn map of the school site. They looked for orange and white controls that have a punch hanging off of them. Each punch leaves a unique impression on the control card. Competition is not emphasized in the physical education setting. But ultimate goals are to gain confidence in reading a map, put all of the information together, get some exercise and have fun.

Humiston has also organized orienteering and map reading events involving horses, bikes, and snowshoes. The game can be applied to any activity, much like a treasure hunt, which she also organizes at birthday parties. There are canoes, skiing, and handicapped and night orienteering events.

"People who are unable to go through the woods because of a wheelchair or other difficulty can use the same map skills to look at controls to determine which is the correct one. That is called 'Trail O'. I can always find a way to include everyone." She said.

For Humiston, her husband, and three children, who compete around North America, it has become a family activity. Orienteering and awe-inspiring places like the Grand Canyon, California deserts, and river gorges are just a few of the perks. Humiston says, "It's a sport that you can stay active in your whole life. Orienteering truly is the sport of a lifetime."

NHAHPERD Convention

Waterville Valley, NH -
Ultimate Treasure Hunts participated and had an exhibit table at the New Hampshire Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation & Dance Convention. It was an opportunity to tell New Hampshire Educators what we offer.

Campfire Boys and Girls

Reading, MA

Ultimate Treasure Hunts created a map game for 75 boys and girls from age 5-12. We had light rain and typical New England early summer weather, but kids don't care! We set the chest up indoors and dodged the raindrops. The kids learned about maps and had a great time!

Big Brothers and Big Sisters

Candia, NH

We donated a day of fun to a great organization that finds mentors and friends for thousands of children every day. The bigs and the littles came to learn how to read a map, look for clues, and solve the puzzle to win prizes donated by WOKQ. This modern, country rock station volunteered their morning show hosts to meet and greet the public on a beautiful fall day. Charmingfare Farm offered hay rides, a petting zoo, as well as wild animals from near and far. WOKQ conducted a grand prize drawing and gave away a 25" flat screen TV. Oakhurst Dairy gave away free orange juice and Ultimate Treasure Hunts provided a unique way to spend time with people you care about, be outside, and enjoy nature-- all while learning about maps!! What could be better?

Sixth-graders put their orienteering skills to test

By Amy Kane
hamptonunion@seacoastonline.com

NORTH HAMPTON - Orienteering is a mind and body workout that has been called "the thinking sport" and "cunning running." It involves navigation through woods and fields, and the only equipment needed is a map and compass.

A spirit of adventure helps, too, which 11- and 12-year-olds have in abundant supply.

With geography and map-reading skills as part of the curriculum for sixth-graders, North Hampton School teachers Wendy Crowley, Noreen Forbes and Brenda Tharp decided to engage students in a real-life application of the knowledge.

With the help of orienteering instructor and nationally ranked competitor Deb Humiston, kids and teachers put their skills to the test on a short orienteering course through the Fort Rock forest in Exeter last Thursday.

Using a detailed, five-color map made specifically for the sport, students searched for a series of checkpoints in the woods, called "controls."

The controls were marked on the maps with circles and in the woods with orange-and-white three-sided flags. To show they had found the controls, students punched their "control cards" with stapler-like punches hanging from the flags, each with a different pattern.

To navigate to each control, students first oriented their maps with the help of their compasses. They also matched symbols on their maps with nearby landscape features such as stonewalls, fields, trails, hills and streams to figure out where they were and where they wanted to go.

The object was to visit each of the seven controls in order and return safely to the start/finish area in a grassy clearing not far from the Newfields Road entrance. Parent volunteers stationed at several trail junctions helped keep them on track.

Half the students ran in one direction around the course and half in the other, with staggered start times every one minute. As each group of partners finished, running up the last hill or down a narrow rocky trail, they were cheered on by the other competitors, their classmates.

When everyone had completed the course, they had a picnic lunch.

Munching her sandwich, Kinsey Devenport reflected on the event.

"We got lost going to No. 1," she said. "But then we got the hang of it, and it was fun."

She and her partner Christopher Diharce finished the 1.75 kilometer course in 19 minutes, 54 seconds.

Teacher Noreen Forbes was impressed.

"I saw how much the kids loved it - being outside, using their energy and using skills they learned in the classroom," she said. "They were really into it."

The Fort Rock course was set by Humiston, a New Hampshire orienteering expert who teaches the sport to school kids, corporate execs, sales teams and other groups.

In a three-part introduction to orienteering, Humiston uses a "micro to macro" approach that she learned in Sweden where she has competed. Orienteering is a required part of Swedish curriculum kindergarten through 12th grade.

Humiston said she thinks that when it comes to understanding and using maps, Americans could learn something from the Swedes. In a National Geographic-sponsored survey of students’ geographic awareness and map skills, Swedish students ranked first while U.S. students finished last.

Humiston said in this country, orienteering has sometimes been taught as an abstract mathematical skill, simply land navigation by compass bearings on U.S. Geological Survey maps covering large areas.

Only five-color large-scale orienteering maps have the fine detail necessary to get people to relate to the landscape, said Humiston. Orienteers use compass bearings to navigate, too, but even more important is "map contact," or knowing where you are at all times by "reading" man-made, natural and topographic features.

In her first lesson in late October, Humiston introduced spatial awareness through a simple map game on the "micro" level in the classroom. In the second lesson in early November, Humiston took students outside for a "score" event in which students found 12 controls in any order.

The third lesson was a real orienteering course she set in the Fort Rock woods. "I’m trying to get them to pull things together," she said.

Humiston is enthusiastic about orienteering.

"It’s one of the few sports that you’re allowed to make decisions that aren’t right or wrong; they’re right for you," she says, referring to the process of selecting a route between controls.

"Also, the feeling of competition, that’s wonderful. It makes you want to go."

Humiston said she would like to make a color map of the fields and woods behind North Hampton School. With a little training, teachers in any grade could use the map for orienteering and other games that can integrate map use into the curriculum, she said.

Humiston’s visits were paid for with money from the school field trip fund and a grant from PAL, People Active in Learning, the school’s PTO.

For more information, visit Humiston’s Web site at www.ultimatetreasurehunts.com.

For general information about orienteering, visit the United States Orienteering Federation’s Web site at www.us.orienteering.org.

Museum of Science Fall 2005

Ultimate Treasure Hunts brings real Orienteering lessons and GPS navigation to families in Boston. Families can sign up for day long classes that introduce the competive sport in a fun interactive setting. The groups move from the classroom to the backyard of the museum and then on to a real orienteering map. Compasses are introduced only as a toll to manage the map direction and kids learn to use the map features to gain confidence in navigation.

Geocaching is a GPS (Global Positioning System) enhanced treasure hunt. Participants use the satellite communication device to locate hidden treasure. Families learn about all the skills needed to go anywhere in the world to play this game

Families and Maps in Boston Common

Museum of Science Navigation

Families learning to use a GPS

David Barrow’s Adventure Fund Award October 2005

Ultimate Treasure Hunts is the recipient of the David Barrow’s Adventure Fund Award which sponsors adventure-style programming for children and youth an the greater Exeter, NH area. A mountain bike race, the Mud In Your Eye 500, is held annually to benefit the fund.

Kensington kids and maps

Kensington kids running

New Hampshire Library Conference March 2006

Ultimate Treasure Hunts has been selected to present a treasure hunt program at the Artist Showcase, an annual conference for Kids , Books, and the Arts where libraries can review and select programs to be funded by the New Hampshire State Council for the Arts. Through this presentation, libraries will be able to select this for their summer reading program as a sponsored event

Deb to appear in Curious George on PBS

Keep an eye on PBS this coming January to catch a glimpse of Deb and kids orienteering!

RECOGNITION:

WGBH Arthur Show- Fern and the Secret of Moose Mountain September 2004
Competes Nationally and Internationally in short and long distance orienteering events and recently returned from Australia where she finished 2nd in the World Championships for women over age 35.
Recipient of David Barrows Adventure Fund 2005
Selected as a roster artist for NH Arts Foundation sponsored program: Kids, Books and the Arts 2006 to bring treasure hunts to NH communities for their summer reading programs.
Recipient of 21st Century Grant Monies from the Department of Education June 2006, Watertown, MA to design and implement Orienteering Immersion Program for the Summer School.
November 2006 New Hampshire Brief's article in Business NH Magazine
WGBH Curious George- January 2007
Museum of Science, Boston, MA www.mos.org

Weekend Courses and Summer Camp Programs 2005, 2006, 2007

Organize and facilitate navigation event for Harvard Engineering Program’s National Bring a Girl to Engineering Day May 2006 http://www.eweek.org/site/News/Eweek/girlsday.shtml

Cartographer, Field Vetting, and Digitizing of The Great Central Park Treasure Hunt ™

And The Great Boston Common Treasure Hunt™

Featured Highlight for HarborGuide Magazine's Kid edition, Spring 2007
Seacoast News 2007: http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071101/LIFE/711010368&emailAFriend=1
Orienteering Maps and Training for facilitation at www.northernoutdoors.com

COOL EVENTS (there are many more) :

Created "The Search for SpongeBob", a public treasure hunt in Manhattan where participants listened to clues on Z100 and navigated around the city to locate 100$ gift certificates.
Created a game for Newburyport families to use maps to locate historical clues placed around the city to help them find the key and receive treasure.
Led the top sales staff of Nintendo around Magic Kingdom in an 'Amazing Race' like hunt.
Designed and facilitated Radio Shack’s 2006 Sales Convention for 350 people using GPS units in Fort Worth, TX.
Microsoft in Redmond, WA, Genentech, Whole Foods, Portsmouth Hospital, Computer Corporation of America, Bose, Genentech, Nitsch Engineering, Memic, Horizon Tech, Met Life, Deloitte and Touch, Infineon…………this is just a partial list
Hundreds and hundreds of birthday parties and family hunts from NYC to Boston
I have mapped islands, boats, restaurants, classrooms, museums, parks, and parking garages.

WHAT’S NEXT :

UTH has entered into an agreement with www.rosekennedygreenway.org to create maps and games for families including high-tech pod cast treasure hunts and simple clue based games for Opening Day Ceremonies 2008 and the future.