What’s a Gishwhes?

Slim chances are, you’ve vaguely heard of this thing called Gishwhes. If you have but don’t quite know what it is, it’s probably because there are people on your Facebook timeline trying to prepare you for what’s to come. You’re confused and a little annoyed by these posts, and that’s okay. I’m here to explain to you what Gishwhes is, what it does beyond turning mundane objects into weird worlds of abstract art, and what you can do to help those poor bastards struggling to find a neighbor with a boat, a pineapple and an iguana on short notice.

This year’s mascot: Porcupanda.

This year looks to be the last for the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen – that weird Gishwhes word we’re throwing around like you know what it means. The hunt begins August 5th and will end on the 12th, which means we gishers are about to get into panic-mode if we aren’t there already. If you know a gisher, you’ve been warned via Facebook about upcoming bizarre all-caps questions regarding the availability of a goat. You’ve been asked if you were interested in helping a team accomplish their tasks since you have access to an art museum or have coffee with a government official. You’ve seen videos about Syrian refugees and infographics about Nepal. But what does all this mean? Why should you care?

The Thing About Gishwhes

I’ve written about my Gishwhes experience before, and recently my friend and teammate Jessica Mason wrote an article about Gishwhes for The Mary Sue. If you’re interested in finding out more about the hunt itself, click those links. But for this particular article, from me to you, I’d like to focus on what we’ve done outside the hunt and what you can do to support a gisher to have the best damn hunt ever. For us, it’s more than just a week of absurdity – gishers are out there to change the world.

One Act At A Time

Gishwhes has accomplished a lot in the past few years. From Guinness World Records to saving tens of thousands of acres of forest in Nepal, Gishwhes has proved year after year that it isn’t just about winning – it’s about putting good out in the world and restoring a little faith in humanity. Last year, stories of Syrian refugees – including one woman paralyzed by a sniper and a teenager who tried to commit suicide so there was one less mouth for her family to feed – brought the Gishwhes community together to raise over $200,000 in the first 72 hours of the campaign. Helping military veterans, participating in blood drives, donating bone marrow and providing much needed supplies to women’s shelters are just some of the ways Gishwhes strives to make an impact.

Gisholarships

There’s no way something as big and involved as Gishwhes could happen without a registration fee. Unfortunately, whether it was the $10 a few years ago or $21 this year, some people who want to play simply can’t afford that extra expense. To make sure as many people who want to play can, there are gisholarships where registrants can also gift a registration to another person, or provide paid registration to someone they invite by email.

My second year gishing, someone who ran a Twitch page was raising money each month for various charities. She contacted me after seeing my Gishwhes blog on tumblr and invited me to watch one of her Twitch sessions where Mercy announced all donations would go to me to provide gisholarships. We were able to provide 8 gisholarships for the hunt, and have been friends ever since.

This year I was messaged by one of the original gisholarship winners from a few years ago, a member of the Israeli army who looks forward to participating Gishwhes as a fun distraction from some of the harsher things she has to deal with. She asked if we had any ability to provide gisholarships again this year. My team (Team TrashBrigade) happened to have $20 left over from our pool of funds from which we were donating to Random Acts through individual campaigns during their annual event, Endure4Kindness.

After giving that gisholarship and seeing how happy it made the recipient, we decided we wanted to do more. We organized a gisholarship giveaway – we wrote and created art for the Supernatural fandom in exchange for small donations to help us give as many gisholarships as we could. In the end, we had 15 gisholarships – enough to fund an entire team.

Other teams followed our lead and began donating gisholarships after Gishwhes announced they were saving forests of Nepal with every gisholarship. Not only were those donating giving people the opportunity to join in on the madness, but they were helping save over 40,000 acres of forest that is the home to critically endangered animals.

 

How You Can Help Your Gisher

Yes, we’re saps who love helping others and saving rainforests. But we’re also a bit weird. The outcry of Gishwhes is “Death to Normalcy!” and during that mad week, we set aside social norms to just live and exist in a world where being outlandish and extra creative is just how things are. It’s a break from the mundane day to day. That in and of itself should make you slightly interested in helping out a gisher. “But how?!” you cry. “I’m a normal person who can’t recreate a Matisse painting out of legumes!” There are still ways you can help make this last Gishwhes the best ever.

Last year I claimed Pikes Peak for Gishwhes. I couldn’t have done this, or a few other tasks, without the help I had from my friend Mercy. Remember the lady from the gisholarships story? Yeah. She flew up to meet me for the first time & help me make the best submissions I could for a few days of that week I was home alone and sick while my family was out of state.

Don’t Ignore The Pleas For Help

Listen. We know it’s annoying to be posting about Gishwhes on Facebook as frequently as we do. And we know we sound desperate. But listen. It’s because we are. During Gishwhes, we’re going to be sleep deprived, running on caffeine and sugar highs, experiencing crashes, and sitting on the floor crying surrounded by yarn, fabric, paint, and pizza boxes with hot glue stuck to our fingers. Be kind to us. And if you can, lend a hand.

• Join In! Do you secretly want an excuse to do something crazy, spontaneous and (maybe) completely out of character? Do you also have amazing photography skills or are really good at holding up a prop just out of frame? Lend your assistance to a gisher friend who is struggling to get a shot. Like road trips? You may get the opportunity to make a “quick drive” to the Grand Canyon. Plus, who hasn’t ever wanted to be an accomplice in 5 minutes of light trespassing for the sake of art?

TrashBrigade member Christy has All The Holidays At Once in the style of The Last Supper with the help of friends and family.

• Respond To Our Facebook Posts. Yes you can absolutely share that post begging to borrow someone’s ball gown. React to it. Comment. Share. Tag friends who may know a NASA worker or an Amazon manager. If you respond, it might come up higher in someone’s feed. If they see other people engaging, maybe they’ll read it instead of scrolling past. Activity on a post gives it a legitimacy. Otherwise we sound like a crazy person screaming on a subway car where everyone is just avoiding eye contact. Make your own Facebook posts for your gisher friends asking for assistance. We don’t know what for – but networking and broadening their reach for potential assistance is important for gishers. Your neighbor might have their mother in town who would be giddy to be depicted winning an arm-wrestling contest with someone dressed like Thor.
• Be Our Second Brain. Know of a really weird place within driving distance that has a page on AtlasObscura?  Remember that a Renaissance Faire is going on that first weekend of Gishwhes? Our brain power drops substantially during the hunt. There’s a lot to consider, a lot to manage, a lot to plan and our brains will practically be melting. If you have an idea for something you see us struggling with, speak up!
• Just Hang Out. We need company while we’re painting Zachary Levi’s face on a pair of jeans. It gets lonely when you’re coming down off of that V8 Fusion Energy rush at 10pm and trying to decide between Naples yellow and unbleached titanium white for a flesh-colored base. You could watch DVR’d Shark Week episodes or binge Stranger Things while we’re working. Just having someone there can help boost morale.

Take Care Of Your Gisher

• Remind Them Of What They Need To Live. Because they will forget. Have they eaten anything other than leftover pizza? Drank anything other than Red Bull and coffee? Make sure they’re hydrating. Water is better than soda and energy drinks. If they refuse to hydrate because they don’t want to have to take a break to pee, poke them with a stick until they decide breaking to pee every half hour is better than you poking them with a damn stick to the rhythm of Outkast’s “Hey Ya” incessantly.
• There’s This Other Thing They Need. Guess what it is? Sleep. Please don’t drug your gisher, but gently suggest that four hours is long enough to spend editing videos and photos and maybe they should close the computer and get a few hours of rest. A well-rested gisher is a better asset to their team than a sleep deprived member with low-energy.
• Offer To Babysit. Are you free the first weekend? Do you have Wednesday off? If it’ll help, offer to babysit or petsit while they rush off to get some items knocked out. Take their kiddos with you to the pool since you were going anyway. Trust me, there’s a lot of baked goods and returned favors in your future.
• Don’t Remind Them Of The Real World. This mostly goes for highly competitive teams and sounds harsh, but it’s relevant. They really don’t need to know what Trump did. They know the house is completely trashed. What’s a soccer practice? School supplies can wait until August 13th. Think of Gishwhes week as emergency room rules – is anyone in danger of losing sight, limb, or life? Then it can wait. In the same vein, please don’t ask them non-gish related questions. If they’re at work physically, they’re probably not there mentally. They really don’t have a response for attending Brittany’s baby shower in November. Yes, they saw the trailers for all the DC and Marvel movies released during SDCC. No, they don’t have time to talk about it. They might have a moment to speak with you about Chris Evan’s beard. If it’s not pertinent, pull an Elsa and let it go until next Monday.
• Mental Health is Important. Be sure that the stress of the hunt isn’t weighing them down. Whether you’re a teammate, family member or friend watching them spiral into insanity, remind them to take breaks and breathe.

Gishers Just Wanna Have Fun

Team TrashBrigade captain Chandra laughs herself to death in frustration as she tries to escape a wet suit after hours in a borrowed pool getting a shot for an item.

Gishers need all those things we’ve talked about, but they also need to laugh. For gishers reading this: If you aren’t having fun, you’re not going to enjoy the hunt. And that’s the entire point of Gishwhes. You want to have fun, do good and make people smile. That includes yourself. Gishwhes has helped me overcome crippling social anxiety (still working on it, but it was a catalyst for me to go from not leaving the house to speaking in front of rooms full of people – or singing “Hooked On A Feeling” in a Buffalo Wild Wings at lunch time).

Whether it’s your first time doing Gishwhes or your 6th year, or if you’re a friend or family member interested in helping out your poor weird friend who is really, really, frighteningly excited about what’s about to happen, just have fun. Go with it. Put aside everything else that’s happening in the world, take care of your health, go create stuff and laugh at least 80% more than you cry in frustration, because sometimes the cotton balls just aren’t going to stay on the aluminum foil wrapped robot.

So people who are innocent bystanders in this madness, please help your gisher – and gishers, do your best. Because it’s the last year, you gotta go big, whatever that means to you. Just remember to repay your helpers and family who are temporarily displaced by your epic mess of craft things however you can. Cookies and other food bribes usually go a long way.

Whatever your role in this gloriously weird week, even if you’re the official pipe cleaner bender, water-bringer and hot glue stick replenisher, I hope you have the time of your life. And in those hours where you’re too tired and want to quit, remember I’ll be rooting for you. I’m sending you good vibes, telling you to drink water and take your meds, and hoping you get some good sleep. Good luck, friends.  Gish-on.