It’s a well-known fact that geocaching is a community-based game. After all, what would the game be without creative cache owners and the engaged cachers logging their finds?

Another vital backbone of geocaching are the geocaching community volunteers that dedicate their time and talent to support the worldwide geocaching community.

• Reviewers review and publish geocaches that meet geocaching guidelines.
• Moderators guide and monitor participation in geocaching discussion forums.
• Translators translate geocaching content into languages other than English.
• EarthCache reviewers use their expertise in geology to review and publish EarthCaches.

The geocaching community currently has nearly 400 volunteers that support geocachers and coach new players—all for the love of the game. Though many volunteers are active as players in addition to their volunteer duties, there is still a large portion of their community that hasn’t had the chance to meet them yet!

That’s why we’re doing a brief introduction to a few volunteers that you might have seen in your community. Get to know them below!

• Ellis – HartenDame (@hartendame_on_tour)
  • Location: Flanders, Belgium
  • Reviewer since: 2020
  • Behind the username: The username “HartenDame” (“Queen of Hearts” in English) is based on Ellis’ love for card and board games and her passion for Disney (specifically Alice in Wonderland).
  • Fun Fact: Ellis is married to a fellow reviewer for Belgium, FlameCarrier. Collecting geocoins and tags is a passion of hers and she is trying to expand her collection step by step. In her time outside of geocaching, she enjoys baking desserts.
  • Why she volunteers: “My love for geocaching and going out to find new hides, making friends and being part of the community makes it easy to be a volunteer reviewer for this game. As a reviewer, I want to be among the community as much as possible, therefore Events from small meet and greets to even Megas and Gigas are great.”

• Andrea – Giulia_Tofana
  • Location: Italy
  • Reviewer since: 2018
  • Behind the username: The username “Giulia_Tofana” is based on an infamous poisoner from 17th century Italy (but having a drink with Andrea is completely safe!)
  • Fun Fact: Andrea lives his life in flip-flops—even while geocaching! If there’s a cache on a tree to be logged, he’s usually the one to make the climb.
  • Why he volunteers: “I always considered geocaching as a way to discover places and stories, and as a reviewer I have the chance to discover many more, because I have to read every cache that’s submitted for reviewing! Also, I met a lot of nice people in the reviewing community and I love meeting them at events around the world!”

There are many volunteers out there and, while we’d love to introduce you to all of them, that might take a while! Stay tuned for more features where you might see your local volunteer.