2025 Green Goose Chase - Honking Amazing!

We are goosed! After 11 days of an amazing adventure, we totally agree that our 5th year did not disappoint. With new missions, a new kickoff event, surprise missions, lots of amazing community partner, a full flock of amazing teams, our 5th annual Green Goose Chase was magical.

Teams came in all shapes and sizes, but most importantly they came to PLAY with creativity and excitement. We had 96 teams sign up with 77 teams completing at least one mission. PLUS, we had 5 teams that completed all of the 45 regular game missions AND got all bonus points, Talk about some impressive chasers! This year rounded out with 1,346 game submissions meaning since game launch in 2021, teams have submitted 5,777 mission submission!

After 5 years of the Green Goose Chase, you would think no more could be explored, but that is NEVER the case. Starting in February, game co-creators Casey & Carrie work on developing over 40 missions that have teams exploring local sustainability and nature, getting creative, learning more and of course, having a lot of competitive fun. One of the best parts of that process involves 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.

For our 5th year we also included a NEW kickoff event. Over 20 teams showed up to strategize, pick up bonus points, get entered in a special prize drawing and start missions.

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 Heritage Center, Hixon House, Rivoli, River City Hobbies, Free Range Exchange, Leithold's, TJ Cheddarhead's, The People's Food Co-op, La Crosse Public Library, Western Technical College, GROW La Crosse and many other local 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 2025 missions below.

Building a Bright Future

Good Life Goal 11: Love where you live.

Have you met Ellen Hixon? Ellen was a dedicated philanthropist and a key community builder in La Crosse. In 1888, she was one of the founders the Home for the Friendless, which later became the Family and Children's Center. She also played a significant role in funding the La Crosse Hospital. Deeply fond of Grandad Bluff, Ellen took action in 1909 when commercial interests sought to turn the bluff into a quarry. She led the purchase of Grandad Bluff and the surrounding forested land, now known as the Hixon Forest, and generously donated it to the city of La Crosse to be preserved as a park. Good Life Goal 11 focuses on making communities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. Ellen Hixon’s work, including preserving Grandad Bluff and founding local institutions like the Home for the Friendless, directly contributed to building a stronger, more sustainable community. Thanks Ellen! Visit Ellen Hixon's house at 7th and Badger and imagine what your contribution's might be for a brighter, more sustainable future. Strike your best "Forward Looking" pose on the front steps and snap a picture.

Carpool Karaoke

Good Life Goal 9: Make smart choices.

How we move from place to place in the United States accounts for nearly 30% of the air pollution that causes climate change, so the choices we make about transportation can make a big difference in our efforts to reduce global warming. The good thing is that there are already a lot of alternative ways of moving to consider (although we can ALWAYS advocate for more). One thing we know is that all the solo traveling we do by car is one of the least energy efficient means of travel. If you're interested in learning more about the state of public transportation world-wide since the pandemic, click on the link below. In the meantime, time to warm up those vocal chords!

Take a video of your team carpooling or using another form of alternative transportation (bus, bicycles, scooters, train, etc.) while singing or lip synching along with your favorite traveling or transportation themed song. Keep it safe.

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

"I am so thankful for this experience. We came together as a work team and got to see things in La Crosse that I hadn't before (living wall). Got us out and about. I can't thank you enough. We had so much fun."

"I had a great time participating and appreciate that adults can enjoy it too. I learned a lot of new things and got to be creative. It was fun to see other teams out and about with their pennants. I'm holding on to mine...maybe it will come in handy during next year's chase!"

"We had a lot of fun exploring La Crosse and learning about environmental initiatives in the area. I enjoyed the Heritage Museum, and I didn’t even know it was there before!"

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 FIVE teams tied for first including: Perfect Piggs, Team Hoff4, Ready Kohlstedt-y GO!, The Liquid Turtles and Jurassic Honk. We had one final mission for those five teams to complete in order to determine our Mission Master Team winner - "Goose, Goose Duck". It was a lucky duck pull, and Jurassic Honk came out ahead by selecting the lucky duck to pull ahead by one point and become the MISSION MASTER team for 2025!

Jurassic Honk! - 2025 Mission Masters

We gave out two additional EGGY trophies for 2025. The EGGstra award was voted on by teams for the team that had extra creative and inspiring posts. That went to the Liquid Turtles. Enjoy some of their EGGstra work!

EGGstra Award - The Liquid Turtles

The Fast Flyer Trophy went to Brave Chasers - a first time team, for their standout style, smarts and silliness. Our Fast Flyer Team blazed through the Green Goose Chase like a goose on a mission. Quick and cheeky - these flyers didn't just chase the goose, they became it!

Fast Flyers - Brave Chasers

In addition to trophies, we also drew for prizes at the Team Celebration. Teams that accrued over 2,500 points were entered to win. Take a look at our prize winners and pictures from the event

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 fifth 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, would like to sponsor, or have a mission idea for next year’s event, please send them our way at email@sustaininstitute.com