Posts Tagged ‘iphone5’

August 7, 2014

Munzee Player of the Week: Louise Gibson (geoibsons)

Munzee has become so much more than a scavenger hunt. It’s become a collection race, a reason to get outside and each month it even becomes war. For those that participate in Clan Wars, you devote hours and days to capping, deploying and doing whatever else CoachV demands. Munzee’s third Birthday this July was no different and after a long month of activity the Plankers Clan came out on top. A clan is only as good as their leader though, so read on to learn a bit about Louise Gibson (geoibsons) who helped lead her clan to victory.

Who are you?
I am geoibsons, real name Louise Gibson. A 36 year old Londoner, I’m married and Mummy to 2 little boys.

Where in the world do you live?
I live in a town called Marlow, west of London, England where I moved from last year. If you look at the Munzee Map I think it’s pretty obvious a Munzer lives there!

How long have you played Munzee?
I discovered Munzee when it was a 2 month old baby – my account is about 1080 days old. I managed to keep the obsession at bay until the Clan Wars though. My best Munzee chum Rodz asked me to be a member of the London Clan and that was it. I was in. All his Munzees started getting capped by a nutcase wielding a baby in a buggy, this proved handy for a bit of extra height at times (standing on the buggy or lifting the baby and asking him to grab stuff, not standing on the baby obvs). Unfortunately we struggled to keep the London Clan going due to lack of local Munzers, so we went nuts for a couple of months, then sailed off as Pirates for another couple of months. A few of us then jumped ship to plan some world domination. We were briefly another chiming clan, but then became a bunch of Plankers. Turned out we were good at Planking, we won the war didn’t we?! I’d like to give a big shout out to my fellow Plankers!

How did you find Munzee?
I heard about it through my caching chums. The first Munzee I found was called Dorset’s First, I was with my Uncle Griff and it was pretty much the only one on the South Coast of England, which is now saturated! I’m from a serious Munzee family, we pretty much all do it! My parents (Geogarley), my Aunts and Uncles (Georiffles and Baconybits), my sister (geosian) and my cousins (DarthXrisFaerieDee). Family parties are awesome, deploy a munzee and boom, instant caps! My non Munzeeing brother thinks I’m a massive douche bag and I test my husband’s patience fairly regularly though!

What do you enjoy most about Munzee?
Munzee taps into my competitive and geeky side. I like getting outdoors, finding treasure and I feel like I’m a member of a secret club haha. I love the social side that has developed over the last year or so too since I’ve started hosting events in London and love the banter on Facebook. It does sometimes bring out the worst in me though… I think POTW might also stand for Pest Of The Week. I must admit to emailing the whole list of Cologne Event attendees to see if any who didn’t have a clan wanted to join my world domination clan! I also push my virtual field spreadsheets on anyone who’ll listen. It’s worth it though, London is a serious hot spot now and I love my other baby, the virtual Union Jack arrow pointing down at Regent’s Park, Rodz helped me create it and it looks awesome. Relentless doesn’t cover it either – even with over a 300k lead on Cologne with less than 12 hours to go til the end of the clan war I went down to the South Coast of England and stayed up all night, poised to cap to ensure GOLD!

What is on your wish list?
Well I wish every month was as amazing at July 2014! The European Event in Cologne was fantastic. I doubled my score and got over 200k for the Plankers! I met wonderful players and loved hanging out with Rob and Daniel from MHQ. Very nice, very heiß.

I’d like the ability to make in-app purchases (even if you have to pre-load credit or something), I’d like FitBit badges, awards for Clan Winners – especially 3rd Birthday Clan Winners! Once my POTW Munzee Store discount and unlimited blast caps kicks in I’ll be a happy girl haha. I also wish there were more London players.

Tell us about yourself!
So as I’ve said, I’m competitive, a bit geeky and social. I love my family and my friends. I’m as happy drinking cocktails with the girls as I am sinking 10 beers with the boys. I’m a messer, a selfie poser and I’m quite girly. I love shopping, shoes, bags and nail polish, but I’m no easy touch, I like going out on my bike and the Mum’s race at Sports Day very, very seriously hahaha.

Other hobbies include;
I’m pretty sporty. I am into road cycling in a big way. I took it up last year after constant injuries from marathon running. Turns out I’m ok at it. I’m proud to hold 6 Queen of the Mountain titles from various hills around UK and I’m competing in RideLondon next weekend, which is a 100 mile race along the London 2012 Olympic Road Race route. I also love snowboarding. I think Chamonix in France is my spiritual home. The mountains are beautiful and La Vallée Blanche is the most exhilarating day you’ll ever have on a snowboard. Anyway, I’ve cycled 80 miles today, I need some chocolate and a glass or 2 of red wine….Thank you so much to those who nominated me and thank you MHQ for recognizing me. I love you all and I love Munzee xxxxx

Louise was kind enough to share her social, so cap away!

If you know a player that should be nominated for Munzee Player of the Week, shoot us a message at iLoveYou@Munzee.com and let us know just why this person is outstanding in the global Munzee community!

-Please note, this is a super active campaign. We may not be able to get back to everyone, but you’re helping to grow the list of amazing people in the Munzee community!

August 4, 2014

Meet Munzee Munday: Scott Foster

Here at Munzee we’re constantly encouraging our players to meet and greet and build the personal relationships that make this game so great. Over the next few weeks we’ll be showcasing members of Team Munzee so our players can get to know us a bit better. So each Munday (see what we did there?) check in to see a new member of Team Munzee and you decide if you trust the game in our hands. This week we take a peak behind the veil at co-founder Scott Foster!

Name and Title:
Scott Foster, Co-Founder/VP of Technology

Where are you from?
I am from San Rafael, California, USA which is on the North side of the Golden Gate Bridge, south being the beautiful city of San Francisco. I lived there until I was 15 and then moved to Texas with my mom and step-dad. We moved in the middle of July and I would call my friends back in California and say “You wouldn’t believe this place. It’s 2am and it’s still 102F outside.” I still hate the heat. HATE IT.

Tell us about yourself:
About me? Let’s step back a bit …

I have always been interested in programming. I remember being fascinated with computers as a child. I feel like this is very cliché, but I loved being able to type something into the keyboard and things would appear. My dad bought me a C++ book when I was 7 and I didn’t understand a single word of it, but I felt much smarter that I had that book. “Look at me, I’m a REAL programmer!” I remember my house had two phone lines and two computers. So one day I played Warcraft 2 with my friend in the other room via dialup (56k baud modem) and was so amazed how that worked. I lost the game, but it was amazing how it was possible that I could play a game with somebody in the other room. It almost felt like Bell talking into the phone to Watson for the first time, “Mr. Watson – Come here – I want to see you.” … ah, something that is so taken for granted nowadays.

In middle school, I learned Hypercard and would make the teachers impressed that I could make a button on the screen that when you click it, a sound would play on the computer. The girls in my class were not as impressed as my teachers (surprising, I know). My school also had a website that they had no idea what to do with, so I asked if I could play with it – and I thought it was so cool that I could make changes to a file called index.html and people all over the world would see it. Things like that were always a delight.

Once I moved to Texas at 15, it was time to grow up. I just wanted to learn programming and make my 7 year old self proud. Once I graduated from high school and tried a few attempts at college, I decided to join the United States Air Force because they were willing to teach me programming, or so I thought. Basic training was “fun” as was technical training school. I kept asking when I was going to go learn real programming. I got stationed at RAF Lakenheath, England and was excited to learn … which I never did. I bought a PHP book which, like when I was young, I thought that it made me a real programmer. I learned the basics, created a website, and just had fun. As the great historian band Bone Thugs-n-Harmony once said, “You know nothing come easy, you gotta try real, real hard, I tried hard…but I guess I gotta try harder.”

I got out of the USAF after 2.5 years because the military was done relying on people to do programming and switched to using companies. I then moved back to Texas where I married my high school sweetheart, got my college degree at University of Texas at Dallas in Management Information Systems, and my wife and I moved to Philadelphia, PA to start our lives. I worked for a few companies, learned a lot about real programming, and then one day got a Facebook message from Aaron talking about this game he thought about called Munzee which has all lead to this.

Now, my life is not completely boring. I love all kinds of things. I have a Barry Bonds jersey in my closet. I will fight to the death at the notion that he ever did steroids. I also still love playing video games – Final Fantasy and Counterstrike: Global Offensive are the two that I play the most. I also enjoy nature, bike riding, 90’s west coast rap music, and hanging out with my family. A wife and 3 kids keep me very busy outside of work, but I love it.

How long have you worked for Munzee?
I have been around since the almost beginning of Munzee, but have only been working on it full time for about 1.5 years. Most people don’t know, but the first year when we created Munzee… nobody got paid. Everybody thought the idea was stupid, but we wanted to prove them wrong. All the money we earned, which wasn’t much, went back towards the servers or things to grow the game. Myself, along with the three other founders, would sit on Skype from about 8pm – midnight every night coming up with what Munzee was. We all had families and full time jobs so it was all done on the side because players, like you, kept playing. There were many debates on things like what it’s called when you scan a munzee. Everybody now knows it’s called capturing, but back then we had to come up with the terminology.

How did you come up with Munzee?
I actually did not come up with Munzee. Aaron approached me with some ideas he had along with mockups of the website. When I moved back to Texas, the 4 founders met on a cold February 2011 evening at a Mexican restaurant where we all agreed to start Munzee. The rest is history.

What do you enjoy most about Munzee?
The two things I love most are the abilities to prove to myself that I am a real programmer, that my 7 year old self would be proud of, and talking to people all over the world. Most people just go to work, do their job, think the work that they do doesn’t matter to anyone, and go home. Not me. My job is to make sure there is enough coal in the Munzee engine so that people can use it and Rob can steer where the boat needs to go. I have met a lot of interesting people via Munzee and realize that people from all over the world have the same hopes, fears, doubts, inspirations, and goals.

Famous last words?

I got 3 quotes. Dylan is mad that I couldn’t just pick one.

“I want to put a ding in the universe.” – Steve Jobs
“Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth. ” – Mike Tyson
“When my time on earth is gone, and my activities here are passed, I want them to bury me upside down, and my critics can kiss my…” – Bobby Knight

July 28, 2014

Meet Munzee Munday: Omi Salavea

Here at Munzee we’re constantly encouraging our players to meet and greet and build the personal relationships that make this game so great. Over the next few weeks we’ll be showcasing members of Team Munzee so our players can get to know us a bit better. So each Munday (see what we did there?) check in to see a new member of Team Munzee and you decide if you trust the game in our hands. You know her voice, you probably know her instagrammed face, it’s social media director and podcast host extraordinaire Omi Salavea!

Name and Title:
Omi Salavea, Social Media Director for Munzee

Where are you from?
Everywhere, USA! But I hung my hat in Virginia for the longest time.

Tell us about yourself:
Almost everything people could learn about me can be found online, 🙂 . Well, almost everything.

I spent most of my childhood as a Navy brat in Virginia. I grew up loving sci-fi, fine arts, and the great outdoors. I come from creative artists, but to this day, can barely scratch out a simple stick figure. Being surrounded by creativity, I had to find my own niche. Back in my day, the web and communicating globally was still a very new thing. So I made a decision to attend quite a few technical colleges, majoring in anything from web design (hey, that’s creative) to general IT/Networking studies (pays the bills).

With a whirlwind of half-completed studies, creative endeavors, and general craziness that happens in your 20’s, I landed a very awesome job at a pretty large company. I spent several years working up the ranks from the bottom level, technical support. Working in technical support gave me two things: appreciation and compassion for the customers that sign my paychecks, and time to work on what I wanted to do career-wise.

By now the internet was in the infant stages of global communication and interaction. The ability to enjoy a photo of the Sahara desert taken ten minutes ago, and then turn around and watch a DIY repair video recorded in Seattle intrigued me. This sense of sharing experiences, art, etc… to millions of people planted the seeds in my heart to delve into the world of Social Media.

I officially started in 2008 running several blogs and social campaigns with limited success, until I settled on my old blog and Youtube channels (poor, poor, neglected media outlets). In late 2010, Canon USA & Canon ITS grabbed me out of my current Fraud/Investigations position (at the time), and placed me as lead/senior technical consult for developing and launching Canon’s first ever involvement within Social Media. I assisted in rolling out Canon USA’s presence on all major Social Outlets. In 2011, I shifted to the role of senior Social Media Moderator/Advocate for Canon CITS.

Once this happened, well, I officially designated myself a Social Media Maven :). People have seen my face (or heard my voice) all over Youtube, re-pin ANYTHING any of my Pinterest presences post, deal with my terrible blogs, and “heart” my ridiculous tweets.

How long have you worked for Munzee?
Scott, Rob and the original president of Munzee, Aaron, took quick notice of me online and how pro-active I was in promoting some of my outdoor hobbies. In late July, 2013 Aaron asked me to join the team. Basic stuff first, answering support tickets, providing suggestions/feedback about Social Media. The role has grown from there. Everyone at Munzee wears different hats, currently I’m wearing a painter’s mask and a sailor hat constructed out of 120 grit sandpaper.

How did you find Munzee?
Probably the only normal answer I have for this interview! I found Munzee the same way many of our players did. I went out for a ‘caching break at a rest area during a very cold, bitter December. After rooting around in a tangle of dead branches and snow, I found a very neglected cache. No swag, no travel bugs, but a very large, home-printed Munzee with very vague instructions on the back. When I got to my vacation destination, I looked up Munzee and was instantly intrigued, and confused! It took a better smartphone, and a lot of time out in parking lots to get familiar with the game, as well as time spent in the forums, Facebook, and Youtube.

What do you enjoy most about Munzee?
Unlike some of my other hobbies, Munzee doesn’t have me circling the same area for 20 minutes scratching my head because I can’t locate it. Then someone else finds it 2 hours later and says I didn’t look hard enough. I don’t spend 4 hours carving an elaborate stamp of a heron flying through reeds, weeks planning the special place to plant it, and then days being depressed when someone takes the stamp out of it’s hidden spot because they thought it was a prize (Letterboxers feel my pain right now).

Munzee helps so many people stay active. That makes me super proud of Munzee. Even if I didn’t run almost every evening, I get my daily walk and Fitbit steps in by playing Munzee almost every night. It’s the same for many of our players out there.

What are some of your other hobbies?
Live, Eat, Breathe Social Media (drops mic, walks off-stage). Actually, in my spare time I love hiking, making videos for Youtube, and photography. I’m not that great at any of those, but I still love them. I have taken up running, and hope to take part in my first Color Me Rad later on this year. I love spontaneous road trips and with the amount of road trips I’ve taken this year, I’m sure we can list those as a hobby. Oh, does weight loss count as a hobby? If so, then that too.

Famous last words?
Will be available via podcast, you just need to download a better audio player to hear them.

July 1, 2014

Podcast Episode 19: RMH Spokane Re-Cap, Traveling with Team Munzee, and some Birthday Fun!

We won’t drop the mic on ya, but we might drop your smartphone!

This episode of the Munzee Podcast, we talk about about traveling to Spokane for the RMH event, Munzee’s 3rd birthday plans and announce the total caps of the RMH virtuals!

This week’s topics:

1. RMH Spokane event. Getting there was half the adventure (and Dderryberry60 got his first taste of Munzee Events with CoachV)!

2. Pmvogt would like everyone to know: “Go USA!!!!!”

3. Happy Birthday Munzee! We’re turning 3 years old!

4. We “speculate” on several slightly “unexpected” things going down for the month of July. Rover Challenges, Shiny new things in the store, badges, and special icons!

5. The “RMH -Guess the total caps” contest is over! Congrats, Targeteer2k! We’ll contact you via email regarding your awesome prize.

Remember to send all suggestions/feedback for the podcast to: Podcast@Munzee.com

June 30, 2014

Happy Birthday Munzee!

Get ready to blow out the candles because it is officially Munzee’s 3rd birthday celebration, or #FiestaThree as we’ve come to call it around the office. As we celebrate our three years of outstanding achievements, we want to give back to the players that continue to give it their all year after year! This July we have a long list of events and announcements planned throughout the month, so be sure to stay tuned as we reveal more in the coming weeks. Remember, “three is a magic number”, so you may want to keep an eye out every three days this month!

We’ll have sales on special items throughout the month, so to start off we’d like to announce sales on the following items for beginning July 1 at 9 AM (MHQT, GMT-5) for 24 hours.

$3 Virtuals
$3 Socials
$3 Rovers

Take advantage of those discounted Rovers and get them out of their kennels. You’re going to need them if you want to get your hands on the exclusive Birthday Barker badge this July. You can get the badge in one of three ways:

If you interact with 3 rovers that you do not own
or If a rover you own interacts with 3 unique players
or If a rover you own reaches 33 miles of combined distance throughout the month

What’s a birthday without presents? We’ll have prize days throughout the month featuring physical, virtual and totally random prizes. Our first prize day is Thursday July 3rd (mid morning MHQ time) where players have a chance to get Blast Caps, Mystery Virtuals and… a SPECIAL NEW MUNZEE type to celebrate our July Birthday. Those who saw the July Clan Requirements may have heard a bit about this new sparkle in coachv’s eye, but check in Thursday morning to learn exactly what the new munzee is.

Of course we’ll have many, many more announcements throughout the month as well. It helps to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and the blog. Stay tuned to hear about a new special following the end of the Copa Do Munzo challenge, triple point days and an all-out worldwide birthday party.

Big stuff is happening, so happy hunting and happy birthday to Munzee!

June 24, 2014

Podcast Episode 18: Welcome to McKinney and changes around MHQ.

This week on the Munzee podcast, we welcome our players to downtown McKinney, Texas and introduce the newest members of Team Munzee.

This week’s topics:

1. Check out the fresh new faces of Munzee at: http://www.munzee.com/team

2. McKinney native Dderrberry60 shares his insight on the history and charm of McKinney, Texas (home of Munzee HQ) while LeftOvers4Dinner focuses on the points (of course). Plan your visit to McKinney by visiting the McKinney Convention and Visitors Bureau: http://www.visitmckinney.com/

3. Pmvogt and Coachv do da’ Copa Do Munz: https://munzeeblog.com/the-time-has-come-for-copa-do-munzo/

4. RMH Virtuals: https://munzeeblog.com/munzee-for-good-this-may/ -Leave the map June 30th, get your caps in while you can! Also, be sure to check out the event later on this week (June 26th) for RMH Spokane: http://calendar.munzee.com/RMHSpokane/ -CoachV and Dderryberry60 will be there!

Feel free to send us feedback, suggestions, or thoughts on our new podcast “freestyling” to podcast@Munzee.com.

June 10, 2014

GeoGearHeads Podcast 127 featuring Munzee

In case you missed it, last Thursday the guys over at GeoGearHeads were gracious enough to invite President Rob Vardeman for an update on all things Munzee.

-Rob introduced a slew of updates on some of our newer Munzees including:

Motel Munzees, where players can lease capture locations and receive a cut of up to five players’ deploys
Mystery Munzees that give anywhere from 5-50 capture points.
Rovers that can travel with you or without you, all across the world.
The new Blast Capture tool, which allows players to capture up to 100 Munzees in a one mile radius.
Colored Munzees, to add to the artistry of virtual gardens that continue to pop up around the world.

-He expanded on the integration of the Fitbit technology and hopes Munzee can give players even more of a purpose when getting out into the world and capturing. In connection to the fitness aspect of Munzee, Rob also hopes to bring back Munzee apparel that players can buy and possibly even including more active wear options.

-Munzee is also proud to announce that players with a Pebble Smartwatch will be able to download the Munzee companion app which notifies you of nearby Munzees and can display socials as well as Fitbit stats. The app is available for Android users now and should be available to iPhone users any day.

-An update on all of the philanthropic work Munzee has done over the past year, including our donation of $25,000 to the Ronald McDonald House of Spokane, WA late this month.

-Finally, Rob gave a look into the Munzee events over the next few months including an Oktoberfest celebration in McKinney, TX, the #MunzeeSummer campaign and the creation of our Copa Do Munzo international football tournament connection as well. By visiting Munzee.com/football players will be able to choose which country they think the will win the World Cup in Brazil and can earn special points as their team advances.

Keep checking in on our various social media aspects for updates on everything Munzee and thanks again to the GeoGearHeads for reaching out to us.

May 21, 2014

Munzee for good this May!

With inspiration from previous Players of the Week (Derik Reed and Family) we’ve launched a special campaign that we hope inspires the entire Munzee community to open their hearts and join their hands together in fighting for an important cause!

RMH Virtual Munzee is a special limited time Munzee purchase. On sale from May 21 until May 31 (MHQ time) only. RMH Virtuals are temporary gamepieces with all proceeds to benefit the Ronald McDonald House of Spokane Washinton. The donation to RMH of Spokane is to honor the special relationship between the Reed family, RMH, and local Munzee players. Read more about the Reed family and their special Player of the Week award on our blog.

RMH Virtual munzees will remain on the map from the date of deployment until June 30, 2014 at 18:00 MHQ time (CDT).

The RMH Virtual points will be similar to a diamond Munzee. Players will earn 10 points for deploying the munzee. The owner and capper will split 20 points when captured, with a minimum of 5 points for either player. Example: Player A captures and receives 7 points, the owner receives 13 points. Player B captures and receives 8 points, the owner receives 12 points. The maximum for owner or capper is 15 points. The minimum is 5 points.

ONE PURCHASE IS FOR FOUR (4) RMH VIRTUALS. THESE ARE TEMPORARY AND NOT PERMANENT GAMEPIECES, REMOVAL JUNE 30. Purchase your RMH Virtuals here: http://store.munzee.com/RMH-Virtual.html

Four badges may be earned through your purchase and support of the RMH virtual munzee. Badges received for owning 4 RMH munzees, 8 RMH, 20 RMH, and 40 RMH munzees owned.

As if all of this isn’t enough…How about ONE MORE THING! FREEBIES: Buy 2 packs (8 RMH total = $10) get one free regular virtual munzee. Buy 5 packs (20 RMH total = $25) get one free mystery virtual munzee. Must be purchased in same order to qualify for freebies.

The Blast Capture will work in order to capture the RMH virtual. No colors may be applied to the RMH Virtual.

May 15, 2014

Munzee Players of the Week, Derik Reed and Family!

Globally, Munzee is a network of players bound together by one simple thing, a love of the game, and passion to build our community with other like-minded people. Munzee provides us with an outlet to get outdoors, do something special with the family, see new sights, and make new friends. We’re all different, and we each have our own amazing personal story that makes us stronger, and makes this the most amazing group of players (and people) to be a part of. This week’s Players of the Week are no exception to this. The Reed Family (Derik, Kathryn, David and Julia), are near and dear to our hearts. Their love of the game and love of their son David resonate throughout the Munzee community. Today, we want to make them “shine” worldwide with all of you! Read below and get to know this week’s courageous Players of the Week!

1. Who are you? Let us know your “names” and introduce your Munzee family!

We are derikkathryn, Derik Reed, lilgeodave, and lilgeolia. My kids have their own accounts, at their request when we started playing together.

2. Where in the world do you live? We live in East Helena, MT, USA

3. How long have you played Munzee? (Derik) I began playing in January of 2013, 15 months ago.

4. How did you find Munzee? Did someone in your family “take” to Munzee first, or was it a passion shared amongst you all?

I discovered Munzee while overhearing it being discussed at an event of the other Geolocation-Game-That-Must-Not-Be-Named. I think they were actually making fun of it; I downloaded the app, and discovered that there were no more than a dozen in the area I was covering (including my home and Spokane, WA). It took me over a month to get to 100 points, as I had not discovered “armchair munzees” yet. My son David had been diagnosed with ALL, T-Cell Leukemia in October of 2012, and was living with my wife at the Ronald McDonald House in Spokane; munzee provided me with a needed distraction and activity (mostly deploying) while driving back and forth between here and there. My kids both have active accounts, and have played in clan battles with me, but mostly like to go on walks, and sometimes are ready to be done way before me!

5. What do you enjoy most about Munzee?

I enjoy the opportunity to get outside and exercise, the chance to meet new people with similar interests, including planning local events, coordinating strategic Munzee attacks so that our local clans can compete with the “Big Boys in Europe” and on the Coasts during clan battles.

6. How has Munzee impacted your relationship with your family, especially your children?

My family frequently munzees together, but I have way more drive than the kids. Our connections with others, especially while in Spokane, have been greatly augmented by Munzee and the other “Geolocation-Game-That-Must-Not-Be-Named”; also, my connections in that other game have triggered an interest in Munzee in Spokane, where the map has grown from just a few to over 5000 deploys in the last year. Also, another Munzer visiting Spokane capped some Munzees we deployed while walking to Riverfront Park from the Ronald McDonald House on Easter of 2013; she was so moved by our deploys that she made contact with my wife (at R.M.H.), and provided a significant amount of financial, emotional, and spiritual support while we were in Spokane! The people I play with have become close, personal friends, and their prayers and encouragement have been essential to our navigation of the last year. More locally, at a recent event in Helena, another player’s son, who is a survivor of childhood leukemia, was able to meet with my son. We are forging lifelong connections through this game!

7. What is on your wish list?

Most of my wishes have come to pass in the last year–i-nigma on the iPhone, locally planned events, better functionality for conversion and other functions within the app; but the greatest desire I have right now would be for some (or all!) of MHQ to come to one or more events in Montana and Spokane this summer! It would be an acknowledgement that we in the hinterlands are having an impact on the game!

8. Tell us more about your son’s treatment, and how the last 18 months have been for your family:

David was diagnosed with cancer on October 8, 2012, two days before his seventh birthday. He was in critical condition, and within hours of his diagnosis, he was life-flighted to Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital in Spokane, Washington. During the first eight months (the most intense phases) of his three and a quarter years of treatment, he and his mother were required to live in Spokane. The Ronald McDonald House of Spokane became their home away from home. Without the Ronald McDonald House and all of the support it offered our family, those eight months away from home, friends, and family would have been even more difficult. The House provided us a safe place to live, play, and interact with other families with children with significant health issues.

We moved home Memorial Day weekend of 2012, but we visit the Ronald McDonald House every time we’re in Spokane to drop off donated pop tabs and to visit; we will always be grateful to the staff and supporters of the House.

David’s treatment consists of five phases, four of which were completed while we lived in Spokane. The first four phases involved IV chemotherapy, intrathecal chemotherapy, oral chemotherapy and steroids, as well as full cranial radiation. The last phase of treatment requires daily oral chemotherapy, a trip to Spokane every four weeks for IV chemotherapy, and a trip to Spokane every twelve weeks for a lumbar puncture and spinal chemotherapy; this cycle is repeated until the end of treatment. David will complete his final chemotherapy and ring the bell as a childhood cancer survivor on January 18, 2016.

Team Munzee is proud to have the Reed Family as this week’s Players of the Week. The passion and strength they bring to their everyday lives and the game is an inspiration to us, and hopefully, an inspiration to you! We’d like it if the Munzee community could rally together and capture this very special Social we’ve deployed for lilgeodave:

A note from our President: The Reed family and their story have inspired Team Munzee. Coming very soon we will celebrate and honor their Munzee connection with the Ronald McDonald House of Spokane. Prepare for special charity gamepieces, icons, and badges. More information coming very soon!

Thanks so much for taking a moment to read this important Player of the Week Interview, and capturing this Social. Keep your eyes on the blog, and on our Social Outlets for the big announcement from Team Munzee. You can help make a difference in this world! “Expect the Unexpected” this 2014!

May 2, 2014

Announcement: Munzee donates USD $5,000 to Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism!

The amazing efforts of our active Munzee community lead to over 8,055 hearts captured in the month of April! Player captures raised a total of USD $4,027.50 in donations towards an Autism charity. Team Munzee has decided one organization deserves the incredible efforts of our players.

Autism is a neurological disorder that impacts the normal development of the brain (oftentimes in areas of social interaction and communication skills). Autism occurs in as many as one in 150 births, and awareness towards this struggle is something passionately felt by Team Munzee.

The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism was established in 1998 by NFL quarterback Doug Flutie and his wife, Laurie, in honor of their son Doug, Jr. who was diagnosed with autism at age three.

Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation is dedicated to increasing the awareness of autism and improving the lives of families facing the unique challenges of facing autism everyday. Our commitment is to support these families by helping them find the resources they need and by funding advocacy programs as well as educational, therapeutic and recreational opportunities. To learn more about Flutie Foundation, check out the following link: http://www.flutiefoundation.org/

Like Team Munzee, Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation is a small group of passionate people working hard every day to turn their vision into a reality. Yesterday, TJ (VP of Sales/Marketing) reached out to the devoted five-person team and offered our total donation of USD $5,000.00 to their organization! We’re glad we could make a difference by donating to a dedicated organization that will utilize over 90% of our donation towards Autism Awareness (and helping families of children with autism ). Their primary objective is to provide families with a place to turn when they are in need of support and autism resources.

Team Munzee wants to give a big “THANKS” to our player community, YOU are what makes Munzee great. You inspire us to make a difference every day, and today we were able to do just that!

PS: Be sure to give them a little “Like” on Facebook too! https://www.facebook.com/flutiefoundation