Groundspeak needs your help acknowledging a geocacher each month that stands out by inspiring other geocachers with their innovation, creative hides and/or logs, respect for the environment, and helpfulness. More than a hundred geocachers submitted outstanding nominees from around the world.

The Geocacher of the Month celebrates geocachers for their contributions.  A panel of Lackeys had the difficult task of selecting four of the most outstanding nominees. You can help name one of these nominees the “Geocacher of the Month.”

Each geocacher you see below displays extraordinary geocaching qualities including generosity and  inventiveness. Write a comment on this blog post about which of these three geocachers you’d like to see as the first “Geocacher of the Month.”  All those not awarded or nominated are encouraged to submit nominations again next month.

Read the testimonials below and leave a comment with your suggestion. Some testimonials have been edited for length.

 

haksu10

(Member since 2006)

Nominated by ZeroOne: “When I read about your Geocacher of the Month project, I naturally started thinking who would be the most suitable Finnish cacher for the nomination. It took me a while because the person is so humble, but when it came to me it was obvious: username haksu10.

Haksu10 is extremely devoted to the Finnish geocaching community — I dare to say there’s no one more devoted than him. He has single-handedly created and is constantly developing the geocache.fi site, used by most Finnish geocachers daily.

I don’t know when, but in the middle of maintaining the site haksu10 also seems to find the time to occasionally go geocaching. Last summer it almost cost him his life, though. He was bitten by a poisonous snake and was hospitalized. Luckily he recovered in a few days and was back developing the site. Haksu has already found almost 2000 caches and owns almost a hundred caches. The most special of his caches is probably GC16QCH Haksulandia.. What makes it special, though, is that it is located at haksu10’s yard. According to the description, the cache is equipped with an electric outlet in case you need to charge anything. Call before you arrive (or just ring the doorbell) and haksu10 will make you some coffee.”

Dale & Barb

(Members since 2006)

Nominated by Joshism: “I am nominating  ‘Dale n Barb.’ Dale and Barbara have been very active in geocaching for several years.  They have organized or assisted in numerous events with both their Space Coast Geocaching Association and the larger Florida Geocaching Association.  I live more than hour’s drive away, but still attend their events; I know many more who drive even farther.  They have worked with parks and the geocaching community, including numerous CITO events.  They are the owners of “A Cool Cache” (GC15RQB): the most Favorited non-Virtual in the state of Florida. They encourage others to “Take Pride In Your Hide” and live that motto, with thoughtful well-maintained hides that have never disappointed me.  They are a huge asset to the Florida geocaching community in every way possible.”

De broekies

(Member since 2006)

Nominated by kdv, Marcel en Micha (and two others).

kdv writes, “I would like to nominate “De broekies.”  They are spending most of their spare time helping the Dutch (and international) geocaching community enjoy their geocaching experiences even more. They run a successful geocaching website (www.globalcaching.eu) and offer a lot of functionality and fun to all its users and guests.

They often give away Geocoins and other stuff to visitors. Plus they often help out other websites too, hosting items that require special technical knowledge, for instance to run a Geocoin race. And I have never even met him in person!  Robert is just a great person, and I can honestly not think of anyone more deserving of this title. Actually, Geocacher of the Decade would be even more appropriate!

Marcel en Micha writes,”With this email I would like to nominate Robert of the Broekies for Geocacher of the Month. The reason I would like to nominate him is for his outstanding commitment to the Dutch geocaching community.  I think he is a good example of how to make the geocaching community a better place. Every country in the world should have a ‘Robert’.”

 

A panel of Lackeys will use your comments to help decide the Geocacher of the Month award on August 20, 2011 at the Geocaching Block Party in Seattle, Washington, USA. Each Geocacher of the Month will receive an exclusive special edition ”Geocacher of the Month” Geocoin along with a Geocacher of the Month hat and certificate acknowledging their contributions signed by the founders of Geocaching.com: Jeremy Irish, Bryan Roth and Elias Alvord.

If you know an outstanding geocacher who should be the Geocachers of the Month, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@groundspeak.com.

Every nomination must meet the following requirements. Please include your name, the name of your nominee, their username, at least one picture of the nominee and description (in 500 or fewer words) explaining why he or she deserves to be the Geocacher of the Month. Please inform your nominee that you’ve submitted them for the award. Nominations for the September Geocacher of the Month must be received by September 3rd.

Once we have received all of the nominations, we will choose the top candidates and post them on the blog. You will then get a chance to champion your favorite. Our goal is to involve the entire geocaching community in this process so we might learn from each other.