Cito Checklist

[+Half-Canadian]

We just wrapped up a really successful CITO event, Are You On The Winning Team? yesterday, and I thought I'd list a few things that I learned from planning the event.

 

Supplies: A few things can really help keep people motivated. Summer event refreshments would be different, but this will give some ideas about quantities of stuff:

• Refreshments. I had hot cider, coffee, and donuts set out before people arrived. We went through about 2 gallons of cider, 1 gallon of coffee, and 150 Timbits (donut holes).
  
• A case of bottled water from Costco for drinking and rinsing off dirty hands.
  
• Garbage bags with built-in drawstrings. Costco also has these, we used up about 2 cases (180 bags) in 2 hours with about 50 people working.
  
• Hand sanitizer. People appreciated having something to clean up with. I got a big pump-top jug (about a quart) at Walmart for under $5.00. One would be plenty for a group up to 75 or so.
  
• Paper towels. Have a few rolls available for cleaning hands.
  
• Gloves. Even though I had suggested in the cache write-up to bring gloves, I had extras on hand for people that forgot. I bought disposable painter's gloves at the dollar store, paks of 10 for $1.00. 30-40 gloves got used during the event.
  
• Prizes: It's great to have a few goodies to reward people with if you can. Often, local businesses will give stuff or gift certificates for a community service effort like this. For our event, each participant got an official "Team Bandana". I bought these online and silkscreened the CITO logos myself, cost was about 50 cents each. I wrote to Garmin and Magellan and asked for goodies to reward the winning teams at our CITO event and each company sent a box of stuff -- hats, t-shirts, bumper stickers, etc.
  

Time: About 2 hours was a good amount of time. Everyone, including the little kids, were still having a good time and we really accomplished a lot in that amount of time.

 

Make it fun: Set a goal, make a friendly contest, or something to make it a game. We pitted the Garmin users against the Magellan users to see which team could collect the most trash in 2 hours. That strategy really made it a fun competition!

 

Publicity: Call the local newspapers, TV, etc. to let them know what you're doing. Have a page printed up to give them, explaining what geocaching is, what CITO is, and why all these people are spending their time to clean up other people's garbage. Be sure to give credit to the local agencies if they are picking up the trash afterwards!

 

Involve the local government: I contacted the local county a month ahead of time and negotiated with them until they happily agreed to send a crew to pick up the trash at no charge when we were done, saving us several hundred dollars in dump fees. And the head of the solid waste department is now a new geocacher!

 

New caches: Hide a few new caches around the area to reward the partipants. Enlist others to help with that if you want to -- 2 area cachers assisted by placing 8 easy new caches in areas that also had a trash problem, and as a result, those got cleaned up as well as our target site!

 

Pictures: Be sure to take lots of photos.

 

This was the most rewarding cache event I have been involved with to date, and it was great to see so many people having such a good time collecting trash!

 

Edited January 22, 2006 by Half-Canadian

[+MissJenn]

Thanks so much, Half-Canadian. I have a feeling that lots of people get value from this thread, but are not necessarily posting.

[+DocDiTTo]

Thanks so much, Half-Canadian. I have a feeling that lots of people get value from this thread, but are not necessarily posting.

 

Guilty as charged. Too busy taking notes to post.

[+Raine]

Awesome Job!

[+halffast]

Thanks for the great tips.

[+mudsneaker]

Great info. Hope to use it someday myself!

[+Arrow One]

Taking copious notes!

[+Henki]

I'd like to also suggest something that helped us TREMENDOUSLY in our CITO event. It's a flat plastic thing designed to hold open the trash bag while you're filling it, a handy little thing called a Kwickan. They were donated by a local hardware store and were very easy to use; some people even used them as large dustpans.

[+Eartha]

I looked it up and it looks pretty easy to use! Handy dandy instructions I like it. It's made from recycled materials. Eartha likes things that are Earth friendly. And it says one of it's uses could be a temporary dog house, great for packing to go camping with a pup, LOL.

[+humanloofa]

When we clean up our section of highway we use a length of pvc pipe to hold open the bag. Take one side of the opening of the bag and roll the pipe in it. holds the bag open and gives you a handle.

[+BomberJjr]

Thanks, I'llk have to keep all this in mind for the future. I don't see too many CITO events too close to me, so I'm thinking that maybe I should have one someday soon myself.

[+Henki]

Thanks, I'llk have to keep all this in mind for the future. I don't see too many CITO events too close to me, so I'm thinking that maybe I should have one someday soon myself.

 

Excellent idea!

[+IWYLLPA]

I'm new to Geocaching and CITO, but I want to do something like this. I definately appreciate the great guide you laid out Half Canadian. I give you props I'd like to get involved. Thanks for the motivation, too

[+ron1337]

Thanks for all the tips.

I'll be sure to borrow your experience in my next event.

[+Team Four A's]

Thanks for the great ideas!

What a great event!

[+grafinator]

I'm thinking of doing a CITO event sometime this year and this thread has been a big help.

Thanks HC for starting it.

[+wildfireman]

we are working on our first CITO in our area and we also got our local Parks and Recreation Dept. involved and they were glad to give us a hand, as they had more "resources at hand" than we did. Also the local Waste Industries is going to drop a dumpster for the event. We are hoping for a good turn out.

[+Totem Clan]

Thank you! I'm planning a CITO event, the first in this area, and your list was very helpful.

[+weathernowcast]

awesome!

 

Thank you very much

 

Judging from your picture I was surprised tht you picked up the large boulders. We keep them in the woods here. Just kidding.

 

Thanks

[+the Tribe of Two]

I would like to get this caution out to all cachers planning to do some CITO:

 

In addition to geocaching, I work at at a nature center. Last week my boss had a scary encounter with what seemed like an unpleasant but ordinary piece of trash next to the road. A closed 5-gallon plastic bucket turned out to contain a VERY strong and volatile acid, and in moments the fumes gave him acid burns on his face and in his lungs. It was probably meth-related, and the hazmat guys told him that if he had opened a bucket of cooking meth, the explosion would have killed him (not "could have" but "would have".)

 

Apparently the latest gig with meth-production is to leave an anonymous looking closed bucket sitting somewhere out in the landscape, in a park, in an overgrown field, even at a fairly remote site that also happens to serve as a school bus stop. That way, if the meth explodes during the several weeks that the ingredients must "cook", it won't take out the house or the van anymore. It would seem that they are also disposing of their unwanted by-products in a similar fashion.

 

Our entire Parks Department will be going through training from the Fire Department's Hazmat Unit, to learn to recognize the more commonly used formats we might encounter. Meanwhile, with CITO events coming up, no matter how much we want to know what weird item is in the bucket, we all need to LEAVE THE SEALED BUCKETS ALONE and call someone with the appropriate hazardous materials training and gear to deal with it. Yes, this is from the woman who picks up dead skunks and bottles of rotting snake as part of her CITO work.

 

We might also rethink the idea of large geocaches looking like anonymous sealed buckets. I think it's time for some clearly visible labeling.

-Donna

[Guyute1210]

I would like to get this caution out to all cachers planning to do some CITO:

 

In addition to geocaching, I work at at a nature center. Last week my boss had a scary encounter with what seemed like an unpleasant but ordinary piece of trash next to the road. A closed 5-gallon plastic bucket turned out to contain a VERY strong and volatile acid, and in moments the fumes gave him acid burns on his face and in his lungs. It was probably meth-related, and the hazmat guys told him that if he had opened a bucket of cooking meth, the explosion would have killed him (not "could have" but "would have".)

 

Apparently the latest gig with meth-production is to leave an anonymous looking closed bucket sitting somewhere out in the landscape, in a park, in an overgrown field, even at a fairly remote site that also happens to serve as a school bus stop. That way, if the meth explodes during the several weeks that the ingredients must "cook", it won't take out the house or the van anymore. It would seem that they are also disposing of their unwanted by-products in a similar fashion.

 

Our entire Parks Department will be going through training from the Fire Department's Hazmat Unit, to learn to recognize the more commonly used formats we might encounter. Meanwhile, with CITO events coming up, no matter how much we want to know what weird item is in the bucket, we all need to LEAVE THE SEALED BUCKETS ALONE and call someone with the appropriate hazardous materials training and gear to deal with it. Yes, this is from the woman who picks up dead skunks and bottles of rotting snake as part of her CITO work.

 

We might also rethink the idea of large geocaches looking like anonymous sealed buckets. I think it's time for some clearly visible labeling.

-Donna

 

That's all good information, but per the guidelines of the forums, you should not post the same post multiple places, I think the Clandestine Drug Lab thread is plenty, not in 4 threads. Thanks.

[+MissJenn]

the Tribe of Two had already been told. Thanks, though.

[+KerBear]

for my CITO's I try and plan a theme and fun activities as well. That's probably the Girl Scout in me. But Earth Day is environmental activities and the other clean up is a ducky theme-we're cleaning up a small waterway. Keeps it fun esp. for the kids.

[+Terrier Team]

That's cool!! I'm a new geocacher and I will always carry a trash bag. thanks again!!!

[morninglori]

This is very good information. Thank you for posting it. I didn't see it in any of the other forums, so glad I caught it here.

 

morninglori

[+Team Brantley]

I'm take some notes and working up, gathering people and hope to try this sometime, we always pick-up something while caching, even if we don't find it.

 

- Cody from Team Brantley

[+Searenity]

Thanks for the post. I'm working with my local parks and rec dept setting up our first event. You've given me some new ideas. How did you get 50 people to show up? I'm hoping for more than 5.

[+hiram312]

We just wrapped up a really successful CITO event, Are You On The Winning Team? yesterday, and I thought I'd list a few things that I learned from planning the event.

 

Supplies: A few things can really help keep people motivated. Summer event refreshments would be different, but this will give some ideas about quantities of stuff:

• Refreshments. I had hot cider, coffee, and donuts set out before people arrived. We went through about 2 gallons of cider, 1 gallon of coffee, and 150 Timbits (donut holes).
  
• A case of bottled water from Costco for drinking and rinsing off dirty hands.
  
• Garbage bags with built-in drawstrings. Costco also has these, we used up about 2 cases (180 bags) in 2 hours with about 50 people working.
  
• Hand sanitizer. People appreciated having something to clean up with. I got a big pump-top jug (about a quart) at Walmart for under $5.00. One would be plenty for a group up to 75 or so.
  
• Paper towels. Have a few rolls available for cleaning hands.
  
• Gloves. Even though I had suggested in the cache write-up to bring gloves, I had extras on hand for people that forgot. I bought disposable painter's gloves at the dollar store, paks of 10 for $1.00. 30-40 gloves got used during the event.
  
• Prizes: It's great to have a few goodies to reward people with if you can. Often, local businesses will give stuff or gift certificates for a community service effort like this. For our event, each participant got an official "Team Bandana". I bought these online and silkscreened the CITO logos myself, cost was about 50 cents each. I wrote to Garmin and Magellan and asked for goodies to reward the winning teams at our CITO event and each company sent a box of stuff -- hats, t-shirts, bumper stickers, etc.
  

Time: About 2 hours was a good amount of time. Everyone, including the little kids, were still having a good time and we really accomplished a lot in that amount of time.

 

Make it fun: Set a goal, make a friendly contest, or something to make it a game. We pitted the Garmin users against the Magellan users to see which team could collect the most trash in 2 hours. That strategy really made it a fun competition!

 

Publicity: Call the local newspapers, TV, etc. to let them know what you're doing. Have a page printed up to give them, explaining what geocaching is, what CITO is, and why all these people are spending their time to clean up other people's garbage. Be sure to give credit to the local agencies if they are picking up the trash afterwards!

 

Involve the local government: I contacted the local county a month ahead of time and negotiated with them until they happily agreed to send a crew to pick up the trash at no charge when we were done, saving us several hundred dollars in dump fees. And the head of the solid waste department is now a new geocacher!

 

New caches: Hide a few new caches around the area to reward the partipants. Enlist others to help with that if you want to -- 2 area cachers assisted by placing 8 easy new caches in areas that also had a trash problem, and as a result, those got cleaned up as well as our target site!

 

Pictures: Be sure to take lots of photos.

 

This was the most rewarding cache event I have been involved with to date, and it was great to see so many people having such a good time collecting trash!

 

[+hiram312]

very interesting

[+Evil Edna]

We just wrapped up a really successful CITO event, Are You On The Winning Team? yesterday, and I thought I'd list a few things that I learned from planning the event.

 

Supplies: A few things can really help keep people motivated. Summer event refreshments would be different, but this will give some ideas about quantities of stuff:

• Refreshments. I had hot cider, coffee, and donuts set out before people arrived. We went through about 2 gallons of cider, 1 gallon of coffee, and 150 Timbits (donut holes).
  
• A case of bottled water from Costco for drinking and rinsing off dirty hands.
  
• Garbage bags with built-in drawstrings. Costco also has these, we used up about 2 cases (180 bags) in 2 hours with about 50 people working.
  
• Hand sanitizer. People appreciated having something to clean up with. I got a big pump-top jug (about a quart) at Walmart for under $5.00. One would be plenty for a group up to 75 or so.
  
• Paper towels. Have a few rolls available for cleaning hands.
  
• Gloves. Even though I had suggested in the cache write-up to bring gloves, I had extras on hand for people that forgot. I bought disposable painter's gloves at the dollar store, paks of 10 for $1.00. 30-40 gloves got used during the event.
  
• Prizes: It's great to have a few goodies to reward people with if you can. Often, local businesses will give stuff or gift certificates for a community service effort like this. For our event, each participant got an official "Team Bandana". I bought these online and silkscreened the CITO logos myself, cost was about 50 cents each. I wrote to Garmin and Magellan and asked for goodies to reward the winning teams at our CITO event and each company sent a box of stuff -- hats, t-shirts, bumper stickers, etc.
  

Time: About 2 hours was a good amount of time. Everyone, including the little kids, were still having a good time and we really accomplished a lot in that amount of time.

 

Make it fun: Set a goal, make a friendly contest, or something to make it a game. We pitted the Garmin users against the Magellan users to see which team could collect the most trash in 2 hours. That strategy really made it a fun competition!

 

Publicity: Call the local newspapers, TV, etc. to let them know what you're doing. Have a page printed up to give them, explaining what geocaching is, what CITO is, and why all these people are spending their time to clean up other people's garbage. Be sure to give credit to the local agencies if they are picking up the trash afterwards!

 

Involve the local government: I contacted the local county a month ahead of time and negotiated with them until they happily agreed to send a crew to pick up the trash at no charge when we were done, saving us several hundred dollars in dump fees. And the head of the solid waste department is now a new geocacher!

 

New caches: Hide a few new caches around the area to reward the partipants. Enlist others to help with that if you want to -- 2 area cachers assisted by placing 8 easy new caches in areas that also had a trash problem, and as a result, those got cleaned up as well as our target site!

 

Pictures: Be sure to take lots of photos.

 

This was the most rewarding cache event I have been involved with to date, and it was great to see so many people having such a good time collecting trash!

 

[+Evil Edna]

Apologies if I'm covering old ground. I'm new to forums. I hope the following is useful information for future British CITO planners. I have just discovered accidentally the "Keep Britain Tidy" website. I wish I had known about it last year when held a litle CITO event! They look like the people I should have contacted.

[OKHHduo]

Absolutely way cool!!! Thanks for the info and ideas....we will do a CITO here in Medicine Park very soon (www.medicinepark.com)...Mike (the guy part of OKHHduo)