Thank you!

Thank you for joining us for this year's Southwest Spring Week! I hope everyone had as much fun participating as I had organizing!

SWSW by the numbers:

• 236 control points marked in terrain (or marked with a question!) in the Tucson events
• 100 participants throughout the week, some taking part every single day!
• Participants came from 18 different clubs
• Volunteers represented 10 different clubs
• We used 10 different mapped areas throughout the week
• Over 400 maps printed
• 13 cactus spines removed from the bodies of non-desert dwelling orienteers (I made that one up)
• Many hours of sunshine (and a few hours of cloudy skies)

I'd like to give a super cactus high-five thank you to all of the volunteers who made this week possible. We couldn't have done it without a lot of hands helping out and we had hands from all over. This is almost certainly an incomplete list. Please let me know if I've missed someone!

Thanks to Peg Davis (TSN) for planning, volunteer wrangling, beginner instruction, pizza party, refreshments, and turning her home into an orienteering hostel. Barb Bryant (Navigation Games/NEOC) helped with planning, directed the Catalina training, and setting up training activities on the sprint day. Valerie Mayer (QOC) was our fearless registrar and e-punch mentor extraordinaire. Jeff Coker (TSN) and Mark Everett (TSN) set a full slate of courses on the Rt 83 maps for the Tucson weekend days, while Boris Granovskiy (QOC) and Greg Ahlswede (DVOA) designed challenging training courses during the week. Mark Parsons (TSN) did all the legwork for the Bisbee Street-O. Nancy Coker (TSN) worked start at Box Canyon and helped with all the control setting and fetching for the Rt 83 weekend.

Jeff Brucker (TSN) was a lifesaver, vetting and streamering both Tucson Mountain training courses. John Little (TSN) streamered and vetted the Friday Catalina training. Jeff Brodsky (TSN) worked e-punch, provided us with quiet power, and hauled a lot of gear back and forth each day. Pat Townsend (TSN) worked e-punch and registration  Gregg Townsend (TSN) worked e-punch and took some great action shots at the Catalina mass start race.

Mary Jo Childs (GVOC) helped us out at registration at Box Canyon and took many delightful photos. The young men from Cambridge and Navigation Games -- Ethan Childs, Vilppu Viinikainen and Keegan Harkavy -- retrieved controls, pin flags, streamers, and tape after almost every single event. Sarah Peterson (BAOC), Sverre Froyen (RMOC), John Crowther (RMOC), Glenn Haselfield (GPHXO) and Ron Birks (GPHXO) all helped with control retrieval.  Brooke Mann (RMOC) provided e-punch support, helped with map preparation, and didn't flinch when I swore at my computer late into the evenings. Lukas Haakon Trout Luis (TSN/Nydalens SK) helped pass out maps a few times and provided copious giggles.

Super thanks to the GPXHO crew, led by Ron Birks on Saturday and Glenn Haselfield & Forest Brown on Sunday, for organizing Phoenix events to fill out a week of Arizona orienteering.

Last but certainly not least, Melissa Trout (TSN/Nydalens SK) gets a big thanks for working the start at Kentucky Camp and a much bigger thanks for taking primary duties watching our energetic son throughout the entire week while I fiddled with OCAD, printed maps, drove around town, streamered control locations, and generally spent way too much time with orienteering and too little with my family.

Thanks again for letting us share beautiful Southern Arizona with you! We'll see you at SWSW 2019!