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Have you seen the crazy route Tom Mroz is taking to this year’s ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture?

By the time he arrives in Nashville for the start of the conference on November 19, Tom, president of ASLA, will have run more than 1,000 miles. He’s zigzagged from his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan to Detroit, to Cleveland, across to Chicago, to Indianapolis, zagging over to Columbus, zigging south Cincinnati and Louisville, then another zag to visit the award-winning Mustard Seed Hill project, before the final leg into Nashville.

We’re exhausted just writing this. But what fun!

The virtual crazy maze we built for every ASLA member to play is like Ton’s run, a zig here, a zag there and soon enough the virtual balls have made it to the center. As we have at past conferences, we’re giving away a Goric Crazy Maze to one lucky player.

 

Click to enter the contest 

 

The game is simple. The rules are here. Just tilt your smart device back and forth, sort of like Tom’s route to the conference. Whoever is the fastest at getting the three balls through the maze wins a $200 gift basket filled with Goric favorites, of coffee, fine chocolate, Ben & Jerry’s gift cards and more .

Fast or not, everyone has a chance to win the Crazy Maze or one of the other prizes!

Playing games and winning prizes is a Goric tradition at the annual ASLA conference. In 2015, MJ Meneley, with Hitchcock Design Group, won our hip swinging, stand-up body rocking Goric Dancer maze. The contest was so popular we repeated it at the 2016 and 2017 conferences.

We switched up for the 2018 show in Philadelphia giving away an all-weather Solido ping-pong table.

In 2019, Christie Passler, co-founder of the Houston design firm 4&1 took home a Crazy Maze, winning our contest with an astounding time of 37 seconds. She contributed the fully-accessible maze to a park project the firm was designing.

“There is a huge void when it comes to sensory items. We want all of our parks to be inclusive, with equipment that challenges kids in ways beyond the physical,” she told us.

This year, our contest goes virtual.

We had every intention of bringing a Crazy Maze – and some of our other amazing games and equipment – to Nashville for everyone at the conference to play with. We were looking forward to showing our new Streams Interactive collection of child-powered water play systems. And telling you about some of the exciting projects like the one at Garvies Point, NY and Area 15 in Las Vegas and our “Griff” slides in Erie PA, featuring Goric products.

But with Covid still plaguing the world and out of concern for the health and safety of the Goric team and their families, we made the difficult decision to sit out this year.

“I’m feeling conflicted about not being in Nashville,” says our President and CEO, Laura Guscott. “It’s such a great show with great people and workshops. You learn so much from the field trips and presentations.

“I’ll miss catching up with friends, especially after last year’s conference was canceled. Covid, though, is still such an issue, and with some of the Goric team having health issues or young children, I made the difficult decision to stay home this year.

“Although we won’t be at the conference, we are already looking forward to reconnecting next year. I hope that connecting through social media and our virtual Crazy Maze contest will give us a fun way to stay in touch.

“Have a wonderful conference and let’s talk soon!”