If in this past week you have seen a car covered in trash or a medieval knight walking around saying a dragon burnt down his castle, don’t question it just laugh because there is something different that has been happening around the world this past week as people try to change the world one list item at a time.
The Greatest Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen (G.I.S.H.W.H.E.S for short) is an idea that started in late 2011 by “Supernatural” star Misha Collins which has now become an event held annually around the world with all money raised during the process going to The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation.
In an earlier interview from the Guinness book of world records Misha Collins said “The primary reason is that I loved the idea of thousands of people from all over the world connecting to create incredible things that would make people think twice about… well, everything. I also realized it would be a great way to inspire people to do good in the world – which is in line with our non-profit – Random Acts.”
The scavenger hunt which runs for one week sends teams of 15 into madness recreating list items given to them at the start of the week. Last year 14,580 people across the world joined the hunt which helped break the Guinness World record for the largest ever scavenger hunt as well as 93, 530 pledges to do good deeds which broke the Guinness world record for the most charitable pledges of Act of Kindness and this year is no exception.
The list items can vary from the most helpful acts to plain weird with over 100,000 hugs have been shared worldwide this week which has broken the record for the largest online photo album of people hugging as well as striking up conversations with homeless people to provide them with company as well as finding out their favourite meal and providing it to them to creating clothing and portraits from food covering various items in rubbish or simply recreating 10 foot pieces of architecture from books.
As part of this year’s challenge, “Gishwhesheans” were given a task to change a family’s life; either by choosing to donate to a wounded soldier and his family or simply mailing a care package or send a letter of support to a soldier of their choice currently serving for their country.
Possibly one of the most noteworthy achievements of the challenge was the donation of blood. Hundreds of litres of blood and palates have been donated all around the world this year as each team was required to have 3 or more team members donate blood.
“It makes people think outside of the box and creates friendship throughout the world and the random acts of kindness are awesome and make me happy to bring joy to others” said Layton Hahs, a participant from this year’s hunt.
With list items from crazy to record breaking G.I.S.H.W.H.E.S is helping to do its part to make a change in the world one random act of kindness at a time.
For more information about the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation head tohttp://www.randomactsofkindness.org/
To participate in next year’s G.I.S.H.W.H.E.S head to http://www.gishwhes.com
Misha Collins interview retrieved from http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2013/3/misha-collins-and-the-worlds-largest-scavenger-hunt-47380/
Kirra Mardel 