15 Jul Let’s all make the world a better place with ‘GISHWHES’
Are you planning to do something different to achieve a goal this summer? Do you want to push your boundaries, be daring, have fun, live out of your imagination, show a Random Act of Kindness, or be a Stormtrooper for a day?
If you answered yes to any of the above, you could take part in this year’s GISHWHES – The World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt which continues for a week from 30th July. Participants have so far collectively broken 5 Guinness World Records, committed over 93,000 random acts of kindness and fed thousands of the homeless. The aim is to have fun by creating art, showing kindness and helping others, pushing boundaries, stepping out of your comfort zone, and redefines the meaning of “the possible.”
GISHWHES is a scavenger hunt on a global scale through social media. You register with friends, colleagues or family, as a team, or you can join another team from anywhere in the world, and then divide up your tasks when you receive the list on 30th July. As you complete the weird and wonderful tasks, you take a photo and then upload it for your team’s entry. Each task is scored and the winning team is then taken on an all expenses trip to Iceland. All money raised is donated to the charity Random Acts which is managed by the GISHWHES founder Misha Collins.
Allowing your imagination to take over, thinking outside the box of everyday life, having vision and passion are all excellent characteristics for your team members. It also helps to have experts in random subjects, an artistic temperament, a willingness to participate and let yourself go, and always have a Stormtrooper on hand as this is an annual inclusion.
A few of last year’s tasks include:
- Create a cocktail dress or tux out of flowers
- Dress up as the Statue of Liberty
- Walk on water
- Play Croquet as a zombie at an historical site.
- Somewhere, there is a robot that can break a Guinness World Record. Find it or create it and film it.
- Have at least 3 people in a domestic or office setting, completely camouflaged to match their background
- Go to the top of a building and communicate with 4 other people on the rooftops of 4 other buildings using flags and the Flag Semaphore system as a mode of communication. The first person must spell out “GISHWHES”. The second must spell out “MAKES” and the next must spell out “ME” and then the fourth must finish the sentence with whatever they wish.
- Do the one thing that you think, if everyone did it, would change the world for the better overnight.
GISHWHES enables participants to break out of their shells, reconnect with their inner child, attack bucket lists and spread global kindness. Long term tasks include performing for children in hospitals, starting local literacy projects, creating artworks in hospitals or schools, sending thank you letters, and providing meals for homeless people. It’s fun, random, and will spark your imagination and creativity!
As its founder Misha Collins says:
“We often unwittingly sign on to a set of interpretations, rules for behaviour, and ideas about our world and ourselves. We go into a shopping mall, pay the cashier, and leave the store. We know how the interaction will go; we’re on autopilot. And decades from now, when we lie breathing our last breaths on artificial respirators, we may wonder:
“What was that? Was that a life? Was my life something that I did or was my life something that was done to me?”
So maybe this hunt is helping to wake us up from our stupor of normalcy just a little bit. Maybe it’s giving us a chance to remember that the real possibilities open to us at any given moment are limited only by our imagination. At the very least, this lark, this GISHWHES, has given us the chance to see a nun go down a waterslide, for which I will always be grateful.”
You can be that person living your dream to be a Stormtrooper, creating something you had imagined as a child, enabling another person to have a special day, or changing their environment for the better. So if you see a zombie or a My Little Pony or a person playing croquet at a historical site or on a beach, they may be achieving a goal or stepping into their world of possibilities.