World Orienteering Day 2017: How will YOU contribute?

WOD on May 24th is a great opportunity to help getting more people around you to experience the joy of orienteering. Have you got your plan ready for how you will help more people try out orienteering on May 24th? 

The goal of the World Orienteering Day is to increase to visibility and accessibility of orienteering to young people, increasing the number of participants both in the schools’ activities, as well and in the clubs’ activities in all countries of National Federations, helping teachers to implement orienteering in a fun and educational way and and to get more new countries to take part in orienteering. The first World Orienteering Day in 2016 was a big success with more than 250 000 participants. This year more than 1300 events in 75 countries are already registered as of May 14th; more than at the same time last year.

How to contribute?

• Find out if there are World Orienteering Day events in your area, and encourage your friends and family to join in. Sharing encouragement about WOD on social media is the simplest way to contribute.
• If there is an event close to where you live, join in & help the participants learn and have fun by learning.
• Organize your own World Orienteering Day event – either as a new event or as part of an existing event on May 24th which does not have WOD status yet. This can be either in your club, at school or simply in the neighbourhood. See the information folder  “7 step guide to your WOD event”. You don’t even need a real orienteering map – there are many nice examples towards the end of the WOD guidelines. Remember to register the event at worldorienteeringday.com; with the print-out promotion-kit you easily get a professional look for your event: Bib, Badge, Diploma, Diploma with form, Flyer, Poster, Start card

World Orienteering Day is an International Orienteering Federation project lead by the Regional and Youth Development Commission.

Snapshot of registered events from May 14th

Sample: Simple Labyrinth-O

If you have not got a suitable orienteering map in your area, making a simple Labyrinth-O is an alternative. See an example below from the WOD guidelines.