On Saturday, March 14, 2009, 20 PE teachers from Maryland and Virginia attended our 'Orienteering for Educators' workshop held at Longfellow Middle School in Falls Church VA. The teachers - coming from as far away as Virginia Beach and Roanoke - spent their Saturday learning how to hold and read a map, how to teach orienteering to their students, and how they can use maps to set courses at their own schools. They were very enthusiastic about it!

Many thanks go out to all the people who made this happen. REI awarded QOC the Educational Grant, funding our attendance at the MD and VA State PhysEd teacher conferences held this last October and November. The primary workshop presenter was O4 Schools' Chris Cassone, who helps promote orienteering in both educational and corporate settings worldwide. Longfellow MS teachers Carolyn Hudson and Todd White graciously arranged for their school to be used as the workshop venue. As QOC co-Presidents, we created and manned the PE teacher conference display and organized the workshop. Most importantly, many thanks go out to the teachers who got up early on a dreary and cold Saturday morning and through their motivation and enthusiasm made it a fun day for all.

So if you have children, let's hope they come home someday from school with a smile on their face, telling you about the fun they had that day in PE – orienteering! And if you know of teachers (especially PE teachers) who didn't hear about the workshop, have them contact us and we'll be sure to get them involved in the future.

- Greg & Kathleen

Good luck, Andy!