GISH
What is the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt?
I’m a Gisher. I used to be a Gishwhes-er, but they shortened the name.
What is GISH, you ask? It’s the craziest scavenger hunt that anyone can join with a registration fee and donates the part of the proceeds to a different charity every year. This year GISH will be sending money to help send 15 meals to struggling families due to COVID-related struggles. The hunt started August 1, 2020 at 9am.
Our mascot is the Sqroose, the amazing part eastern grey squirrel, part western Canada moose. If you’re familiar with The Island of Doctor Moreau, you’ll understand the coupling of random species together to make another even more random species with strange traits. Also, it’s fun to say there’s a plushy named Sqroose. (Plus, Assbutt got fired.)
For an entire crazy week, people could do things like nose painting with food, which may cause “unreasonable pain and suffering”*.
Picnic in a strange place — like your friends’ parents’ roof. (It seemed like a good idea at the time.*)
Or any other random thing that Misha Collins from Supernatural and his friends have come up with.
I’ve participated in GISH for five separate hunts now. At first, I was a little confused, but once I heard that it was for charity, I got on board quickly. While some of the items on the hunt are silly, others are all about kindness — like the one that asked us to dress up in costume and host an ice cream party for local first responders where they work. (I did that as a fairy, wings and all at our local volunteer fire department.)
The main idea behind GISH is to be all inclusive while making a difference. It’s a lovely idea, and I would participate with my GISH group even if we weren’t “competing” to go spend time in a strange locale with Misha. (Though I’m pretty sure this year’s strange locale is probably inside my own apartment.) I don’t think we’ll ever actually “win” in that respect, but I’m okay with it. For one week a year, I get to celebrate how different I am, how creative I can be, and how much kindness can be spread randomly throughout the world while wearing my “Disobey” shirt (or any one of the costumes that I’ve managed to accumulate over the years, including Wonder Woman).
*Updated to reflect GISH hunt item, #42. Also, no humans, pets, or mascots were injured or unhappy during the quest for weird.
