May 26, 2004

Best minds in the world

photo
Herald photo by Carol South
Two area Odyssey of the Mind teams will compete in the World Finals this weekend at College Park, Md., bringing their creativity, innovation and teamwork with them. to raise some of the $9,000 needed to send 14 teams members to the competition, members of the West High School and Central Grade School teams held a car wash and flower sale Saturday at Grand Traverse Auto. Pictured from left are Audrey Lymna, Aaron Madison and Anna Warren, all sixth-grade students at Central Grade School, exhorting passerby to stop.

Traverse City teams compete at Odyssey of the Mind World Finals

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer

       Fourteen area students will rub shoulders with like-minded young people from around the world this weekend during the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals.
      Held in College Park, Md., the World Finals features 780 teams from 25 countries. Nearly 5,500 competitors will pit their wit, creativity, teamwork and enthusiasm against the best and brightest Odyssey of the Mind competitors on the planet.
      This year, a team from Traverse City West High School and a team from Central Grade School will be attending the event. They earned their place after taking top honors in their respective divisions at the Michigan State Odyssey of the Mind Association Finals held April 17 at Grand Valley State University.
      Since mid-April, team members, coaches and parents have been frantically working to raise the $9,000 needed to send the 14 students to the World Finals. Saturday, they held a car wash and flower flat sale at Grand Traverse Auto; previously they have held flower, bake and mailbox sales. A donation from Rotary Charities has also helped them toward their goal.
      Attending the four-day World Finals competition will be an unforgettable experience for the students, said Kristie Bach, coach for the West High School team. More than 20,000 spectators fill an arena at the University of Maryland and the opening ceremonies mimic the Olympics, with the pageantry of teams carrying state or national flags while anthems play.
      "I've only been to world's once, but it was the most awesome experience I've ever had," she noted. "When we got there, one of the first people we met was from Moldova and we didn't even know where that was."
      Members of the West High School team are seniors David Guthrie, Samantha Giuffre and Laura Drake, Hannah Bach and Julia Korn, both ninth-grade students, Angie Hunt, tenth-grade, Clayton McPherson, 11th grade.
      The West High School team returned from both the regional competition, held in Traverse City in March, and the State Finals with rare Rinatra Fusca creativity awards. This award acknowledges creativity above and beyond what is expected at the competition. They were given because of the team's entry in the Living Art event, which included movable reproductions of two famous artworks.
      Team members used popsicle sticks and tongue depressors to create "Old Man in Grief" by Vincent Van Gogh. Students also used paint samples, cut into a variety of shapes and sizes, to create a mosaic reproduction of a painting by American impressionist Mary Cassat.
      Coach Bach said that the students' works elicited gasps of amazement from other competitors at the regional and state competitions.
      "David came up with the popsicle idea because Van Gogh has very large brush strokes," said Laura Drake, who has been a member of this team for two years.
      Members of the Central Grade School team are Zeky Nadji, Ryhan Nadji, Anna Ward, Audrey Lyman, Aaron Madison and David Rice; coaches are Ricki Babcock Nadji and Paula Ward.
      Meeting and creating together since last fall, members of the Central Grade School team are students in the TAG program. The team includes sixth-grade students plus one fifth grader.
      Team members relished their time together at weekly meetings starting last fall. Each weekend, they worked on their Envirover and practiced games to help in the competition's Spontaneous portion.
      "We had to make a vehicle that could solve a problem," said Aaron Madison of the long-term problem all Division II teams tackled this year. "We all had a lot of fun together."
      The accomplishments of these two teams mirror a tradition in the area when it comes to Odyssey of the Mind, noted Judy Roman, coordinator of Odyssey of the Mind for Traverse City Area Public Schools.
      "Traverse City has sent teams to world finals in the last five years," said Roman, who as an OM coach has taken teams to World Finals. "Three years ago we sent four teams, so there are excellent teams coming out of our schools."