Navigation Games Member Spotlight

What are your organization’s guiding values?
Navigation Games is mission driven, collaborative, community minded, and volunteer powered. We create active outdoor experiences through the sport of orienteering.

Navigation Games believes that orienteering is one of the best ways to both encourage physical activity for youth, and provide opportunities to develop important life skills. We explain orienteering as visiting checkpoints shown on a map in order, as quickly as you can.
We partner with other organizations that serve youth (schools, after-schools, parks and recreation departments, environmental nonprofits etc.) to serve diverse communities and invite volunteers to get involved with all aspects of our work.

What are the ongoing services or programs that your organization provides?
Orienteering activities—in school grounds, in a local park, in woods and forests, on rivers and lakes—to everyone who wants to give it a go! We provide materials and train others to deliver orienteering-based programming.  We  partner with educators and youth leaders, until they are comfortable and ready to go by themselves. This way, more people can be exposed to the skills and fun associated with orienteering.

What upcoming projects or initiatives should readers
know about?
Join a family friendly event on Peddocks Island on October 19. Enjoy orienteering, guided walks, a bonfire and ghost stories, apple cider and donuts, arts & crafts. Hosted by the Boston Harbor Islands.

Vampire-O: On October 30 from 6:15 pm-9:00 pm at Danehy Park. Teams will visit checkpoints shown on the map, using flashlights to see in the dark. Teams of “vampires” tag regular teams and they swap roles. The first team to evade the vampires and fill their punch card wins. Open to the public, a popular and fun evening for all ages.

Share a recent story that embodies Navigation Games' work:
This year, we were awarded an Innovation Grant from Boston Harbor Islands, to design and host orienteering activities on Georges Island and Peddocks Island.

At our August event on Georges Island, we invited Cambridge Camping and Phillips Brooks House Association to run our courses. Also in August, we invited the community to visit Peddocks Island and take part in orienteering activities. Many of the participants had never explored the Boston harbor islands nor done orienteering before—We  recorded success for both organizations!

One participant at our recent Boston Harbor island event thought that, "Orienteering made it more fun to walk around and explore." Another shared, “If we can make it more fun for kids to explore outside, that’s a big win!”

What If Navigation Games was an emoji, what would it be
and why?
An orienteering flag on a tree or hill—the best part about orienteering is achieving your goal of finding the checkpoint.
Check our website: navigationgames.org  for more details.