Every day is a chance for us to rock the world by simply being our awesome selves, but there is one week in particular when it becomes possible to literally KNOCK the planet off its axis! Every year, the first week of August is reserved for the wildest, most artistic and heartwarming of events: GISHWHES. Yes, Gishwhes. But what the heck is it? Consider this your primer!
all aboard the Gishbus!
What it is
GISHWHES stands for (the) Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen and it’s an invitation for people from all walks of life, (and from all over the world!), to come together and not only change lives for the better, but to have fun and inspire creativity and silliness. Founded by actor Misha Collins, (best known for his role as the angel Castiel on the t.v. show Supernatural), Gishwhes holds at least seven Guinness World Records, gets thousands of participants every year, and rewards the best of the best with a trip to an exotic location with Misha Collins, himself. I had the pleasure of participating for the second time this year, and I’m here to tell you about it in the hopes that more of you will want to join in the mayhem next year!
So what is the actual ‘scavenger hunt’ all about?
The Hunt
When you decide to throw all caution to the wind and register, you can try to encourage your friends and family to join and create a fifteen person team with you, or you can choose to join a randomized team of friendly strangers from all over the world. It’s sort of like signing up to get matched with an international pen pal! On the first day of the scavenger hunt, Misha posts a list of about 200 ‘tasks’ that make up the hunt itself. Your team’s jobs is to pick and choose which of all the items you are most excited about trying, and then go and do them as enthusiastically as possible within a week! You document yourself doing each task with either a photo or a short video, upload everything to the site, and wait for your points to roll in. The team who ends up with the most points at the very end wins! This year, I was in an awesome team with fellow iggles Ann, Rosa, and Dez, as well as some of my real life friends, and some other awesome people that we got to meet online.
The Tasks
The items range anywhere from something mild like volunteering your time to help a family in need by doing chores for them, dressing up as a superhero to do your OWN chores, or something a bit more out there like getting a violin quartet to serenade you at the dentist’s office while you have a procedure done. Or maybe even making an entire outfit out of food! Some tasks can call for assistance from young children to do your makeup before an outing, while some of the more artistic tasks can ask you to put your drawing skills to the ultimate test by sketching a portrait of an actor, (like Jensen Ackles who plays Dean Winchester on Supernatural), on a Skittle!
Jensen Ackles on a Skittle done by me!
Superheroes have to do tedious chores, too!
Basically, anything goes and nothing is impossible with Gishwhes! The items offer quite the variety, and whether you venture out of your house to perform any of them or not, there is something for everyone. You don’t have to be a social extrovert to participate! One of the tasks this year called for crafting handmade cards to send to an autistic child – an item perfectly suited for our community, and that iggle Ann excelled at!
Here are some other items that my team performed this year:
Team member Susan delivering ice cream to the local fire department dressed as the “Dessert Fairy”
Team member Misty selling “bottled air” (and using the profits to buy something nice for the local police department!)
Team member Andrea’s friend dressed in a vegetable cheerleader outfit! (Made from actual vegetables!)
Gishwhes believes that “normalcy” is overrated and that true “living” can be found hidden under the rocks of community artistic creation, acts of artistic sublime public performances, and random acts of kindness. More importantly, we are all artists and have gifts for society no matter what our capabilities or talents. And most importantly, we at GISHWHES want you to know the most important thing we’ve learned in the past four years: it is almost impossible to make durable clothing from cheese.
– taken from official Gishwhes site
I love participating in Gishwhes, and am already looking forward to next year. How about you? Is this something you think you’d be up for trying? Do you have any questions? Let me know in the comments, below!
And for even more information, photos, and videos from hunts-past, check out the official website for Gishwhes: http://www.gishwhes.com
“Rainbow Teeth” by Dez Schwartz aka @DorianXWilde
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