GISHWHES: Impact, Creativity, Art and Community

There aren’t many shows out there that really, truly impact our lives. Certainly not at the individual level, anyways. Supernatural has always been a show that has enriched my life: that sounds corny, I know, but bear with me. Since Supernatural has come into my life I have met a great online community of people, been privy to some fabulous and touching entertainment and acting and had the privilege of reading incredible pieces of work on and writing for this site. These are all the reasons I love Supernatural. Recently, however, I have one more reason to be thankful to Supernatural and that is for bringing Misha Collins into my life. Maybe some of you already know where this is going, because you’ve been doing it to and loving it just as much: I have just spent the past eight days participating in GISHWHES, Misha Collins brainchild: The Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen. 

When I signed up for this scavenger hunt, I didn’t know what to expect and I thought, well, I might be a lousy teammate because there are bound to be things outside my comfort zone on that list. Actually, most of the list fell into that realm. Misha and co sorted 6000+ of us into teams of ten and I was fortunate to be with a wonderful group, all incredibly creative, dynamic and dedicated. Over the past week we’ve had a great many laughs, exchanged over 1000 emails, done some nutty things and as a result of this whole event, I have made some great new friends, all because I started watching a show about two brothers and car a handful of years ago. 

The GISHWHES experience is about art, creativity, community and impact, so activities ranged from things like building a world famous landmark from gummy bears to performing a random act of kindness to marketing snake oil. And Misha, evil genius that he is, couldn’t help but include many of the Supernatural actors in this list, in one form or another, in what I’m certain is revenge for the on-set pranks over the years. 

I thought I’d share with everyone just a few things that were included on that list:

• Obtain an authentic email from Jared Padalecki stating “I am Misha’s bitch”
• Get a photo of a cast member of the Vampire Diaries, Nikita, Supernatural (other than Misha) or MASH in a Justin Bieber T-shirt – anyone who follows any of these cast members on Twitter would have borne witness to the bombardment by 6000 scavenger hunters pursuing this item, and the great generosity of actors like Matt Cohen (who met his fans at a pre-arranged time and date to get a photo with them) and Samantha Ferris (who fought the crowds, donned a Bieber t-shirt and then fought for the right for all teams to use the same photo)
• Carve a sculpture of Jensen Ackles out of raisins
• Make a portrait of Jared Padalecki out of Swedish fish

Here are some photos from my team’s submissions of these items:

Despite Ms. Ferris’ urging, we were not permitted to use the same photos of cast members in a Bieber t-shirt, this is what we ended up with, and this cast member even kindly included a note to the fans:

Raisins, I have learned firsthand, don’t glue very well. I found the best approach was to mush them a bit, create a raisin mash and go from there:

(I’m not an artist, don’t judge. I had raisin pulp on my hands for hours to produce this meager bust of the snarky Dean Winchester)

Unlike raisins, Swedish fish are more cooperative:

And, one more item, for anyone interested, there are a great number of videos on Youtube now that depict Misha Collins retelling various fairytales as the result of this project. Actually, there are a great number of videos on Youtube from this event, ranging from hilarious to touching – so if you’re looking for something to do, check them out. 

GISHWHES also raised money for the charity, Random Acts (no total released yet, but a fair amount I’d wager, given the number of participants) and set out to break the Guinness world record for largest scavenger hunt. Over all, it was a fabulous experience and I recommend it to anyone and everyone to sign up next year! 

Oh, I almost forgot, you may have heard about this depending on where you live, but the escaped 5 ft. fully decorated Christmas tree with a mini-Castiel passenger floating in the stratosphere via helium filled yard-waste bags? Yup, that’s GISHWHES. 

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