Help Taylor Ranch's Odyssey team get to World Finals

Help our Trailblazers get to The Odyssey of the Mind World competition in Michigan!

We are an Odyssey of the Mind (OM) team from Taylor Ranch Elementary School in Venice, Florida. Odyssey of the Mind is an international organization that encourages creativity, invention, problem-solving, and critical thinking. The competition requires them to think outside the box and work collaboratively to solve a problem they are presented with. This year they chose Problem 5 AstronOMical Odyssey. This required them to come up with 3 individual stories that they had to act out in a skit, make their own costumes, props, backdrops, write their script and act it all out in 8 minutes. Story one was how their constellation was formed, story two is about their made-up civilization and an artist who made a sculpture inspired from their constellation and story three was their story of how they arrived on this planet. They also had to include a shooting star that moved across stage.

The team has been working on this problem since October and placed 3rd at the regional competition in Ft Myers in February which moved them on to the state competition in Orlando in April. They competed against 17 other teams across FL and came in 6th place. Unfortunately, only the top 3 teams get to move onto the OM Worlds Competition, but their story has an amazing ending! During the awards ceremony these kids were on the edge of their seats hoping to be called to walk across that stage. They didn't make the top 5 to walk across stage. But there is one other award called the Ranatra Fusca that was being given out. This award is the highest honor in OM. It is a nomination by a judge for an individual or team based on their creativity with something and going for it even if it may fail. This award gives them an automatic invitation to OM World Finals. The very last nomination of the state award ceremony started to be read and it hit them it may be them. It started with...

"A team’s creative shooting star (they got on the edge of their seats) that was an aerialist (their faces of shock) whose teammates wheeled her across the stage (they realized it was them) while performing using creativity, teamwork and left a truly unforgettable performance to the judges."

At this point the kids knew it was them, but it wasn't until they finally heard their school’s name that they jumped up and screamed, cheered, and cried running to the stage. The pure joy, shock, excitement, and emotions on their faces was priceless.

Now to the part of where we need help. We have 7 team members and 2 coaches that need to get to Michigan from May 20th-25th for the competition. Which is only a month away. Flights, rooms to stay in, shuttle bus to get us to and from the airport and any other registration fees needed.

Can you help us get there? Any donation amount is helpful and will help us reach our goal.

On behalf of this team of Trailblazers from Taylor Ranch Elementary, we thank you for your generosity!

Coaches,

Jackie Kurecki-Detert, 5th Grade Teacher

Jessica Sullivan, Parent & Volunteer