[Photo provided]
BALLSTON SPA - The Ballston Spa High School Odyssey of the Mind team will be holding an Odyssey Fair on Friday, May 4, 5:00 – 8:00 p.m.at the First Presbyterian Church in Ballston Spa, 22 West High St., as part of Ballston Spa’s First Friday Village-wide series of events.
Visitors to the Odyssey Fair will enjoy carnival games, a talent show, baked goods, and raffles. The Odyssey Fair will also feature a performance of the award-winning skit that earned the team a trip to the Odyssey of the Mind World Championship in Iowa on May 23. The Fair is one of several initiatives to help raise funds for the trip to Iowa. The team has a fundraising goal of $10,000 for their trip, and has raised over $3,200 so far on the web site gofundme.com/bshs-odyssey-2018.
Odyssey of the Mind is an international creative problem-solving competition for students from kindergarten through college. Team members apply their creativity to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics. Getting to World’s requires exceptional dedication, teamwork, and creativity. The team started in September, meeting every Saturday and Monday. Their dedication and talent helped them win the regional tournament and place second in the state tournaments, qualifying them to advance to the World Championship.
Now the team has a chance to meet and compete with over 800 teams from all over the United States and around the world. Grace O’Connor, team member and high school junior, says, “We are beyond thrilled to go to Worlds. We’ve really put our hearts and heads together for nearly 8 months, and it’s incredible to see all that hard work paying off.”
The OM performance problem this year is to perform an eight-minute skit of a "Stellar Hangout" where there are alien creatures, food, a 'puppet', entertainment, a map that transforms from 2D-3D, and a quest for a treasure. Everything in the skit needs to be created by the team, from writing the skit to the creation of costumes and building of props, no adult assistance is allowed. Additional information on this year’s challenge and tournament is available at http://www.nysoma.org/.
