As a mother is preparing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for her preschooler, busy watching PBS, she hears in the background a song all too familiar: “Dinosaur Train…Dinosaur Train..” A few minutes later she hears the pitter-patter of her son coming up the stairs. The young son tugs on his mom’s pants and declares. “I want to find the Dinosaur Train Geocache!” The mother looks puzzled not knowing what in the world he’s talking about. The son signals his mom downstairs to rewind the DVR to understand what he means. She quickly realizes their family may be heading on an adventure to find “treasure” only a few miles from their home.
Just last summer the Jim Henson Company wanted to find a way to get kids outside more, exploring their world. Producers of the PBS Henson show “Dinosaur Train” felt that by partnering the show with geocaching would be a match made in heaven. The Jim Henson Company contacted geocaching.com and decided that they would help PBS stations, museums, and Zoos to place “Dinosaur Train” caches all over the country.
One of those stations was our very own PBS station here in St. Paul. After TPT St. Paul got the info from the Jim Henson production about what they were trying to accomplish, the vice president of communication contacted one of their employees, Scott Holisky wondering if he was interested in hiding a “Dinosaur Train” themed geocache. Scott reports he then formed a committee of 7 other employees at TPT to figure out the best place to hide the cache. Scott mentioned that the Henson Company was very helpful in providing all the cache materials needed to hide the cache. The hiding team at TPT also got great advice from Surfer Joe as well as Ramsey Country parks about good placement.
The biggest win in this project has been that it has brought good exposure to the hobby of geocaching as an educational, fun, family activity. Holisky mentioned that he has received several emails from parents that have seen the promotion for the Dinosaur Train geocache wanting more information.
Currently there are 43 Dinosaur Train caches all over the US. Each cache is named after a particular dinosaur. TheSt. Paul cache is the “Igunadon” dinosaur cache. The hope that with each cache found, it will spark interest in learning about various kinds of dinosaurs. When Holisky was asked about the SWAG in the cache he mentioned he orignial put unique PBS items that he has recieved over the years. In the spring he plans in putting a dozen new toy dinosaurs that will be real treasure for kids.
Do you know a preschooler ? Most likely, they watch “Dinosaur Train” and would enjoy finding the cache, but don’t know where to start. Mentioning the show “Dinosaur Train” may be an opportunity to introduce caching to families with young kids.
Video: Dinosaur Train host invites family to discover geocaching.
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