One of our problems is that Daytonians don’t seem to have a whole lot of respect for our fair city. We’re hemorrhaging population, leadership seems to be asleep at the wheel, and we can’t seem to get our geek on…

So a few ideas to make you think- maybe Five Rivers Outdoors can try to help us get our geek on- or at least make Dayton a fun place to experience for a weekend. Some people may say why? Others, why not?

The CityChase
The City Chase is a unique urban adventure that requires participants to exhibit teamwork, resourcefulness, determination and the ability to make decisions on the fly as they search for ChasePoints scattered in unknown locations throughout the city. Each City Chase event starts with teams of two receiving a clue sheet detailing a variety of physical, intellectual and humorous challenges, designed to push comfort zones. The challenges are designed to test Mind, Body and Spirit. To conquer this 4-6 hour urban event, 2-person teams will run, walk and use public transit to navigate their way throughout the city, while calling family and friends for help, accessing the Internet, and even employing assistance of total strangers. The first team to complete the required ChasePoints and cross the finish line WINS…

There is a guy who calls himself the “Chief Happiness Officer” and talks about making the workplace happy– why not create the position in Dayton? A strategy to make the people in our community smile and have fun- no matter how bad the idiots in charge (be it Delphi, BRAC, bad loan companies, or Kroger) make things- the “CHO” would get our minds off the bad, and get us thinking “It’s great in Dayton.”

I think a CHO may be a much better investment than Norm Essman and his Tech Town Follies, or the Downtown Dayton Partnership. What do you think?

Who wants to be the first Dayton Chief Happiness Officer? Applications being accepted now.