I’m putting this out on all of the forums I belong to, so if you’ve already seen it, sorry. I just want to get as many opinions and ideas as I can.

First a quick history lesson: since 2000, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office has hosted a “Battle of the Badges” fund raiser for the Sheriff’s Youth Ranches. Until 2006, this event was held at New Smyrna Speedway and had a late model race as well as a public safety demo derby and a bus race run by area Chiefs of Police and Sheriffs. The 2006 event turned tragic when Sheriff Daniels (Lake County) was killed during the race. Last year the event took a drastic format change.

Realizing that the racing event just couldn’t go on after the tragedy and it only appealed to public safety and race fans only, a committee was formed to explore other options and opportunities. A fishing tournament was set up as a replacement and held at Riverside in New Smyrna Beach. Feeling the need to further involve the community, the event was turned into a full weekend event with carnival games, public safety demos, vendors, food and music. A Mustang show was put on by a local Mustang club as well. In other words, something for everyone.

This got my feeble mind to thinking…what about a Jeep event? How about a…POKER RUN! I liked the idea, but felt that a poker run between bars just wasn’t right. First of all, it’s a Sheriff’s Office event, second of all, why stay on the pavement? So the hamster in my head started spinning the wheel a little faster.

Why not a combination geocaching trip, poker run and trail ride into one? Here’s the short synopsis: like a poker run, you buy a hand or several hands. You then follow clues/coordinates like geocaching to find a “cache”. In this case, a sealed envelope with a playing card. If you bought one hand, you pull one envelope, two hands, two envelopes, etc. Then it’s off to the next cache. At the end, you meet at the rally point and open the envelopes to make your hand. Of course, the hope would be that we could get some sponsors on board to provide great prizes.

I don’t think we’d do the run on the same day as the Battle of the Badges, but maybe the month prior or even weekend before. I’d also like to see two runs, one in Spring and the other in late Summer. As far as the day of the event, maybe have a cruise in/show and shine.

Now, the first peril and pitfall is availability of GPS units….not everyone has one. Because of this, other avenues, like manned checkpoints, could be used. It takes the “mystery” out of it, but includes more of the Jeep/4X4 community in the fun.

The second pitfall is legalities. What’s needed as far as permission from, say, ONF to hold this and what, if any, insurance is needed?

It’s too late to hold this event for this year’s event (September 19-21), but it’s not too late to plan it for next year! The people within VCSO that I pitched this to so far are all for it, but wanted more info than I could offer

So, first of all, is this something that people would be interested in? Second of all, has anyone ever organized something like this (even a traditional poker run) and can offer tips on prizes, sponsor searches and so on?

Thanks!

 

I think the idea sound good.

As far as getting around the gps deal you could do landmarks insteed of numbers but you would have to be very easy on hint to determine locations due to people not being fimilar with different areas

 

I thought of that idea, too (like a scavenger hunt) and also thought of just having check points along the way. You need to get out and stretch out anyway, so why not get your card, too?

 

Sounds good to me keep me posted