2024 Green Goose Chase - Flying HIGH!

What can we say? The fourth year of the Green Goose Chase has us flying high! From returning teams to new teams, this year was our highest participating year so far.

Teams came in all shapes and sizes, but most importantly they came to PLAY. We had 100 teams sign up with 80 teams completing more than one mission. That is nearly a 27% increase in active team participation and 23% increase in team sign ups! PLUS, we had 12 teams that completed all of the 43 regular game missions, Talk about some impressive chasers!

Each year before the game begins, co-creators Casey & Carrie start hatching up ideas on how to make the game eggstra exciting. That process involves crafting new missions and reaching out to community partners. Not to be surprised, but those community partners and members rallied and brought us new ideas, new locations and new ways to engage with our community.

One thing we LOVE about the Green Goose Chase is the ability to further our mission to celebrate local sustainability. That means getting teams to head out to other organizations and locations doing good work. This year partnerships and places included the Rivoli, YMCA, Wrench and Roll, Another Green World, Larsen's General, Kroner's Hardware Store, The Pearl, The Nature Place, The People's Food Co-op, The La Crosse Public Library and many local green spaces.

If you didn't play, you might be wondering what is the Green Goose Chase? Well, the best way to explain it is that the Green Goose Chase is a mission-based game meets scavenger hunt where teams accrue points by texting in answers, submitting photos & videos, and heading to specific locations to obtain a GPS location tag all through an app on a smart phone or device. We took the extra step by making each of these missions relate back to a Good Life Goal. Good life goals were fashioned after the UN Sustainable Development goals and are personal actions that can help you achieve your potential, improve your well-being, and contribute to a better world. Teams get the opportunity to experience local sustainability efforts, explore nature, learn about the good life goals and have fun together.

Wondering what a mission looks like? Read two of the 2024 missions below.

Honky Tonk

Good Life Goal 3: Stay Well.

Research shows that dance and movement can improve both emotional and physical well-being. Reported benefits include: - physical outcomes: building strength, flexibility, coordination, and balance - emotional outcomes: lifting your mood, increasing happiness, and resilience - cognitive outcomes: enhancing memory, orientation and concentration We will shake a tail feather for that! Now it's your turn. Turn up the music and submit a video of one or some of your team dancing to your favorite beat. Can we suggest some Boot Scootin' Boogie?

The Birds and the Bees (and Butterflies, Bats, and Beetles)

Good Life Goal 15: Life on Land

It's estimated that we rely on the work of pollinators --bees, butterflies, birds, bats, and others--for about 1 of every 3 bites of our food. In other words, there's a lot of important work riding on the wings of these little critters! Unfortunately, our pollinator friends are having a hard go of it due to habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change. Learn about our backyard pollinators at the link below. Then, take a picture of a teammate dressed like your favorite pollinator. Props encouraged!

Another thing we love about the Green Goose Chase is the inspiration, appreciation and creativity the game creates. Don't just take our word for it....here are some comments from teams this year!

We were an all adult first time team participating and it was SO fun. We all came away with new knowledge of sustainability actions in our community and had a great time doing it.

I was so impressed with this activity as a way to take someone like me from curious to engaged. I have been interested in making changes that benefit the earth and our community, but often not committing to actions. I also often notice great events and organizations after events, but haven’t been plugged into a network to find out about things ahead of time. This was a fun way to feel looped in and become more knowledgeable. Thank you!!!

We loved the entire chase, the vibe, and learning about sustainability. Thank you so much for organizing this!

We had so much learn, learned some things and will implement some life changes to help earth. This was epic!

We really enjoy this fun and allows us to teach our kids about sustainability in a fun way!

At the end of the Green Goose Chase, teams complete mini missions in Myrick Park as a part of the annual Earth Fair. This is a way for us to meet teams, enjoy the Earth Fair and come together to celebrate. We have a live celebration where we hand out recycled Eggy trophies, draw for prizes and thank our teams and donors for making this year's game a success.

It was a tight game in the end. Heading into the Team Celebration we had SIX teams tied for first including: OoMinNis, Identity Works, Lucy Goosey, Manson Nation, Screamin Mimos, and The Gaggle. We had one final mission for those six teams to complete in order to determine our Mission Master Team winner - "Put all your eggs in one basket". It was an egg toss, and OoMinNis came out ahead sinking all three eggs into the basket to pull ahead by one point and become the MISSION MASTER team for 2024!

We gave out three additional EGGY trophies for 2024. The EGGstra award was voted on by teams for the team that had extra creative and inspiring posts. That went to the Screamin' Mimos. Enjoy some of their EGGstra work!

The Early Bird Trophy went to the The Gaggle for being the first time to complete our BONUS Egg Hunt mission this year. They were the first to find all six hidden eggs and unscramble the clue. It's true that the early bird gets the trophy!

Lastly, we gave out a surprise and NEW trophy this year - Little Lucky Duck. This went to an unsuspecting team that just happen to sit in the right chair with a hidden egg underneath. Congrats Threes-geese!

In addition to trophies, we also drew for prizes. Teams that accrued over 2,000 points were entered to win. The first three draws when to teams in the top 5. Here were our prize winners.

A special thank you to this year's prize & celebration event donors!

The Green Goose Chase would not be possible without the support of many people and organizations especially the La Crosse Community foundation for awarding us a mini-grant to help offset the cost to purchase the game APP and other game expenses. This mini grant along with the generosity of the Sustainability Institute members allowed us to run the Green Goose Chase for a fourth year completely FREE to all participants. THANK YOU!

In addition, we couldn't be more grateful for all the teams and community partner organizations that made this year a HUGE success. Until next year....HONK!

If you are a community organization that would like to highlight your sustainability work or have a mission idea for next year’s event, please send them our way at email@sustaininstitute.com