MISSION: Great Outdoors Week

If you don’t know by now, I’m a huge fan of outside. Specifically, Pittsburgh’s outside. This city has so much to offer and I love to take advantage of the four seasons of outdoor fun. I routinely ride my bike to work, meetings, and to the market, practice yoga often, and hike and camp. I’m a member of Venture Outdoors and check out the Walls Are Bad calendar all the time.

Affiliated Agent GiVi seems to second this fondness for outside and I’m a huge fan of her missions!

 

Date:

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Operative:

Affiliated Agent GiVi

Location:

Point State Park, Downtown Pittsburgh

Time:

1:15 pm

 

This year, the tenth annual Great Outdoors Week ran from May 13 through May 22. Outdoor-related activities like hiking, biking, and paddling were scheduled throughout southwestern Pennsylvania to engage the public in nature-based activities.

I thought it would be a nice gesture to get in the spirit of encouraging folks to get outside and play, so my mission featured a $10 gift card to REI, a water bottle, and a nice cotton blend t-shirt (made with recycled fibers!). With the people I know who like to do outdoor activities, an REI gift card is a huge thrill – REI is like a Toys R Us for grown ups. So it made me happy that someone would find this little surprise.

I also wrote a little note in the card:

Roses are red

Violets are blue

We like the outdoors

Hope you do too.

 

I know it’s kind of cheesy, but it got the message across, right?

 

I decided to leave the package at Point State Park during the Venture Outdoors Festival on Saturday the 21st. This is an annual event that features dozens of local outdoors clubs sharing information about what they do. Each year about 6,000 people attend. So I figured my mission would be a good fit for this crowd.

It was a perfect, warm sunny day. About time too, considering all the rain we’ve been having. But the challenge of being a beautiful day was that a lot of people were out. A lot.

How would I ever do this mission without someone noticing? There were a couple trees where I could set it out, but what I’d be doing would be too obvious; there was a big grassy area too—but so many people walking by! I decided to place the package on the little pedestrian bridge that goes under the highway in the Park. I skirted behind some DCNR park rangers, set down the package and walked to the other side of the bridge to take a picture, all the while trying to look nonchalant. Very difficult.

I really hope someone picked it up and appreciated what was inside. I was glad to do it!!

 

 

Awesome, job Agent GiVi. This was certainly a great mission. I know so many folks who would have loved to be the finder of this one. Keep up the great work! For more information on what to do outdoors in Pittsburgh, Check out the following websites and Get Outside: Venture Outdoors, Walls Are Bad, Friends of the RiverFront, and PGH CitiParks.

I’ll see you outdoors!