School aiming for Odyssey of the Mind world finals
GREENWICH — The seven members of Hamilton Avenue School’s Division I Odyssey of the Mind team are eligible to compete in the world finals this May, but the team will need over $10,000 to send the members and coach to Iowa for the competition.
This is the fourth time the school’s Division I team is eligible to be one of over 800 teams attending the international educational program’s world finals. However, Cathy Byrne, the team’s coach and Hamilton Avenue teacher, said that while in years past the team raised money to cover the cost of trip necessities such as transportation, food and housing, this year’s costs are more expensive than ever before.
“We really need to raise some money,” Byrne said.
Byrne and the team parents are putting together fundraisers to send the seven third through fifth graders on the Division I team to Iowa to compete in the world finals. Byrne put together a GoFundMe on March 18, and as of the following Friday at 10 a.m., she raised $1,030. She said parents are putting together an online fundraiser, bake sales and more to help get to the $10,000 goal.
“We are a Title I school and so the families don’t have a lot of expendable cash,” Byrne said. “This is an amazing experience for the kids. I’ve been before and the kids get so much out of it.”
Odyssey of the Mind is an international program that gives students in kindergarten through college the opportunity to solve creative problems. Byrne said, for the state finals on March 16, her Division I team placed first and solved a long-term problem where they produced a play based on the classic novel, “Treasure Island.”
The seven students scored top in all three categories for their problem solving — spontaneous, style and long-term. This is the first time the Hamilton Avenue Division I team scored top in all three categories, Byrne said.
“They were ecstatic,” Byrne said about the students’ reactions to winning the state finals and becoming eligible for the world finals. “They were jumping up and down and screaming.”
Hamilton Avenue also has an Odyssey of the Mind team for kindergarten through second graders called the primary team. Primary teams go to state competitions and perform, but they are not scored like the older students. “They’re not actually competing against each other,” Byrne said. “It’s jus to kind of get them used to the program.”
Hamilton Avenue’s primary team students created a solution to a problem called The Night Life where “they built a forest and introduced the various creatures that inhabit the night,” according to a statement.
Byrne said for the Division I students, getting the chance to go to the world finals is a great experience, both on and off the stage. Byrne referenced pin trading as a tradition that helps the kids learn skills such as negotiation.
Each state and country has a pin and the students get the chance to go and trade pins with their peers.
“Even the pin trading is such an experience for them,” Byrne said. “They learn how to negotiate, they learn the value of things, they learn to speak to other people from other countries.”