Meet your (newest) community volunteers—karaoke, dragons, and waterfalls!
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 who log their finds?
Another vital aspect of the game is the collection of geocaching community volunteers who dedicate their time, passion, and talent to support the worldwide geocaching community.
- Reviewers review and publish geocaches that meet geocaching guidelines.
- Moderators guide and monitor participation in the Geocaching 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 who 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 activities, a large portion of their community still hasn’t had the chance to meet them yet.
Here’s a brief introduction to some of the new volunteers you may have seen in your community!
1. Todd – HwangMaeYun
- Location: South Korea
- Reviewer and translator since: 2023
- Behind the username: “I am HwangMaeYun (hwahng-may-yoon). Hwang translates to king or emperor, Mae (May) is the month I started as a reviewer, and Yun is my wife’s family name. It was my way of saying ‘thank you’ to Korea for all it’s given me along my journey, thanks to geocaching and to remember the date in which I began this part of my geolife, and thanks to my family for supporting me through it all. MaeYun, when spoken in Korean, also means spicy, so part of my personal dad-joke humor means it translates as ‘the spicy king.’”
- Fun Facts: Todd is an artist who has been teaching ESL in Korea for 15 years! When he’s not contributing to geocaching in major ways (like helping to create Korea’s fizzy forest and first underwater hide), he’s off printing 3D containers or geeking out at Star Wars and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
- Why he volunteers: “I chose to accept the role as reviewer because of the love I have for this game. Geocaching has shown me parts of Korea I may not have ever seen if it were not for those random green dots on the map that I just “had” to get to! It was also my chance to give back to the game that has given me much joy…meeting amazing people from around the world that share the same sense of adventure as I have and it has created some lifelong friendships. Being an expat in a foreign land has its challenges, and the people I have met while caching have remained a wonderful constant in my life here. It’s been a wonderful journey and I am super excited for everything else this life will bring me!”
2. Zuzana (saphira.sg)
- Translator for: Czech
- Translator since: 2022
- Behind the language: In addition to Czech, Zuzana speaks both English and German, understands Slovak and Russian, and is currently learning Hebrew. That’s a lot of languages, but that’s not all! As she states, “Every time I travel I try to learn at least a few words and basic phrases from the country I am traveling to.” She’s not just collecting caches—she’s collecting languages, too!
- Fun Facts: As you may be able to guess from her username, Zuzana loves dragons! She even has a collection of dragon-themed geocoins and likes to find any dragon-themed geocaches that she comes across. When she’s not geocaching or fawning over her favorite fire-breathing creature, she enjoys reading, traveling, and knitting special Icelandic sweaters known as lopapeysur.
- Why she volunteers: “I am a volunteer translator because I want every cacher to be able to read the newsletter and blog posts that are filled with so much exciting news and interesting articles.”
3. Nana – HellasReviewer
- Location: Greece
- Reviewer since: 2022
- Behind the username: “I am HellasReviewer. It’s a name that declares exactly who I am and what I do. Hellas is the Greek name for Greece, so I am the reviewer for Greece. What is funny about it is that one cannot understand if I am a man or a woman. I enjoy so much the fact that all geocachers who don’t know me assume that I am a man!”
- Fun Facts: Nana is an avid hiker and is part of her local Mountaineering Club! Though her co-hikers poke fun at her for constantly talking about geocaching, she uses geocaches as waypoints along her way. As she sees it, “geocaching is the best tourist guide when [she] travels around.” Like many geocachers, she’s always seeing her surroundings as potential cache hiding locations—we can relate!
- Why she volunteers: “I became a volunteer because Greatland Reviewer suggested it. I am a fan of his, I couldn’t refuse. He trained me and hearing about his life in Alaska made me a bigger fan. Moreover, I have retired from being a teacher, I have plenty of time, I am persistent, I can speak English, and many geocachers all over Greece are my friends. It seems that the universe was positive about my becoming a reviewer.”
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, and check out our past volunteer features.
