What do you get when you combine a pirate, a parrot, a toad, a badger, an astronomer, a shooting star, a pickle, and a bag of knock-off Cheetos? Boy, I’d love to hear your punchline…but the real answer is that you’d have Frye and Gavin’s Odyssey costumes for the past four years!

It started out in fourth grade as a fun, non-athletic activity for these buds to try together, but after four years on their team (The Ducktapers!) these boys have grown so much — their creativity, their teamwork skills, their confidence, and their overall weirdness have all benefitted immensely from this incredible program.

For those who don’t know, 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. Teams compete at a regional level and then can qualify for their state competition and finally the international competition, held each year in the great Midwestern US.

The Ducktapers worked their butts off this year and that hard work (plus another team backing out at the last minute) bought them an invitation to Worlds this May! Frye and Gavin, along with their team, are headed to Iowa State and will have the opportunity to meet and interact with teams from all over the globe. The boys have been trying to think of ways to fundraise for their trip and, after requests from a few family members, we thought this was the easiest way to share with friends and family who don’t live locally. Every dollar helps toward this wild adventure, and we know the boys would be incredibly grateful for anything you could contribute to help them out. It’s an experience they’ll remember forever and we appreciate your support!