Odyssey of the Mind Team Members Corey Geer, Alex Geer – Bloomingdale High School; Jessica Alzamora, Larissa Randall, Victoria Harris, and Sydney Luzier, who attend Strawberry Crest’s IB Magnet Program.
By Ray Alzamora
It’s amazing what you can do with duct tape and hot glue. Add to that some cardboard, a ladder, a lot of paint, six high school students with seemingly boundless enthusiasm, and a lot of creativity and you have The Campo Family YMCA team’s skit for this year’s Odyssey Of The Mind Competition.
The Odyssey Of The Mind competition has three main components: style, spontaneous and long term. Each team competes with others in their selected problem in their age group. On tournament days, the three scores are combined for each team and the team with the highest score is awarded first place, the next second and so on. Top teams move on to the next level of competition.
The Campo Family YMCA High School team won the Florida State Competition held at University of Central Florida in April. Their humorous solution for this year’s Classics Problem: To Be Or Not To Be earned them a first place trophy.
In addition, the team was also awarded a prestigious Ranatra Fusca Creativity Award for their performance in the Spontaneous problem. The Ranatra Fusca award is considered to be the organization’s highest honor.
The team’s next competition will be at The University of Iowa for the World Finals where they will compete with the top teams from across the country and the world. Team member Larissa Randal said, “World Finals is such an amazing opportunity for kids our age to interact with teen agers from all over the world, and learn to understand their culture. It’s truly an honor to be able to compete at this level of competition and show the world our interpretation of creativity.”
Between now and their departure for World Finals, the team has a very full schedule. They will have countless hours of practices and spontaneous run-throughs dove-tailed in between their school work and other activities. They also need to raise $10,000 to cover their travel and entrance expenses.
The team is preparing to hold a huge yard sale for mid-May, as well as looking into other fundraising opportunities.
They would welcome any donations of garage sale items, fundraising ideas, or monetary donations. Donation by check should be made out to Florida Odyssey Of The Mind (or FLOMA a 501(c)(3) organization. Please contact Alzamora at 966-6399 to arrange for pickup of any donations.
