What is it?

The Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen (GISHWHES) is an annual competition that unites people from around the world for a week of silly activities that culminates in the grand prize, generally a cruise with the founder of the hunt, Misha Collins. Teams of 15 competitors earn points for submitting photos and videos of themselves completing prompts from the list they receive at the beginning of the week. Over the four years that GISHWHES has existed, it has won several World Records, including being the largest media scavenger hunt. Although Collins originally founded GISHWHES as a publicity stunt to gain recognition for his show Supernatural, it has evolved to represent his charity Random Acts, a foundation that raises money to carry out random acts of kindness all over the world, such as digging wells in Africa and building homes for disadvantaged people all across America.

When is it?

August 1-8, 2015

“I really only joined at the urging of my friends. I expected the experience to be really weird. I thought going in that I would be very embarrassed completing the tasks but what I found instead was a warmth and acceptance from other people that I didn’t see coming. As of last year, I officially joined the GISHWHES bandwagon. I plan to continue this competition for a very long time. It’s the best way I know to have fun and ultimately make the world a better place.” – Samyukthaa Saiprakash, 12