ECC Elementary Odyssey of the Mind World Finals

I am one of the coaches of the El Camino Creek Elementary School Odyssey of the Mind team comprised of seven 4th and 5th grade girls. Odyssey of the Mind is a creative problem-solving program where team members present their solution at a competition to a predefined long-term problem that takes many months to complete and involves writing, design, construction, and theatrical performance. A spontaneous portion of the competition has the team also generate solutions to a problem they have not seen before. Our team won the Coastal Regionals and took second at the State Championships this weekend, qualifying for the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals in Ames, Iowa between May 21 through 24. In doing so, they beat many far better funded Odyssey programs from Los Angeles' top public and private schools. Our program is majority funded by donations from parents and PTA. The girls have met twice a week for most of the school year and put in untold hours into writing, revising, memorizing lines, building sets, rehearsing, and competing, and the girls are so so so excited to compete at the World Finals.

Now that the excitement of qualifying has died down a bit, we are faced with the reality of how to fund the girls' registration and travel. The team is facing prohibitive costs of $3,750 for registration and about $1000 per family to travel and stay at the Finals. Our goal is to defray the costs as best we can to ensure the girls can make it to the competition. We are appealing to the community to contribute whatever they can to fund these girls' dream to compete at the highest level, and hopefully bring home a championship to the Encinitas and Carlsbad community and to the Encinitas Union School District. This event will be an amazing once in a lifetime experience for the girls and a chance for them to meet teams from across the globe and expand their creativity to new levels. We appreciate the community's support of what these girls have accomplished!