Local Odyssey of the Mind team has a shot at the World Finals

An Odyssey of the Mind team with students from Bailey’s and Belvedere elementary schools was named the Virginia state champion in the “Division I Classics Problem” competition.

That means the seven-student team has an opportunity to advance to the World Finals at Iowa State University May 25-29. They need some financial assistance for the trip so they are selling candy and flowers (right) and reaching out to the community with a fundraising campaign on GoFundMe.

Odyssey of the Mind is an international problem-solving competition in which students use creativity and divergent thinking to solve technical and complicated challenges in an eight-minute performance while having fun in the process. 

The Bailey’s/Belvedere team won its competition in Newport News, Va., with a creative breakfast-themed retelling of an Aesop fable set in colonial Jamestown – without any help from parents or coaches. The team members – Conner Aylward, Patrick Kirby, Jamey
McClure, Chloe Obias, Isabelle Passin, Samuel Rossen, and Kyle Wilson –
are in grades 3-5.

The World Competition is expected to draw more than 800 teams and their families from more than 25 countries.