As Dave was hanging controls on Saturday for the Menotomy Rocks event, a man walking by asked him if there was going to be orienteering. "Yes," said Dave. "Betcha nobody knows about it," said the man.

Ha! Over 100 people, more than half of them kids, and most of them first-time orienteers, showed up, in spite of predictions of rain and overcast skies. The large turnout was largely thanks to my co-worker Steve Roels, who told me about a couple of Arlington email lists, including one for parents, and to other volunteers, who passed the word on to local scouting groups.

Quite a few people tried more than one course. Seven string-O competitors went on to do a white course with their parents. John Coglianese and David O_Brien ran white twice, improving their time by 12:19 the second time. John proceeded to do an orange course with his dad. John and Kevin Hogan did both white and yellow courses. The Hummel family did string-O, white and yellow! Nadia Sladkey did the white course with her mom, and liked it so much she came back later with her dad to do yellow. Katherine Britt skipped right up to orange from the white course. A first-time orienteer who had a quintuple bypass in February was seen running in to the finish.

Big thanks to Nick Commons-Miller, along with Ben and Meg Parsons, who set the string course for 17 youngsters. Michael Commons did course setting, preprinted maps, publicity and day-of-meet helping -- and, with Nick, picked up four bags of trash from the park the previous day. Pattie Miller shone at guiding the little ones through the string-O, and simultaneously handling registrations and finishes. Many thanks to meet workers Mitzi White, Pat Brinkman and Dave Yee!

We had some trouble with our controls. Three disappeared for good, and one lost its number. We heard a rumor that a man thought they were garbage and was found throwing them away. We replaced missing controls during the meet. Due to the confusion about which controls were out when, I decided not to check the punch cards for correct punching.

In the few moments I had to take a breath and look around at all the action, I was moved by the number of children out there having fun. The map is old (1991); features have changed; controls were stolen; registration was rushed (I didn_t get a chance to clearly explain things like having to go around the controls in the given order) _ but everyone seemed to be having a great time. I think it would be wonderful if NEOC could keep getting those kids out there in the woods. Orienteering may be in the Olympics in the future, and on Saturday I found myself daydreaming about how someday maybe Arlington will become known as the home town of famous orienteers. And it will be primarily thanks to Steve Roels telling us about those Arlington email lists. Thanks, Steve!