Middle school ‘creative crusaders’ undaunted by huge fund-raising task

Editor’s Note: This is fourth in a series spotlighting the five Monroe-Woodbury School District teams participating in Odyssey of the Mind world competition.

CENTRAL VALLEY — As fund raisers continue throughout the community to raise $20,000 to send five teams to international Odyssey of the Mind competition, this Monroe-Woodbury Middle School “Weird Science” team has no doubt it will be in Ames, Iowa, at the end of this month representing its school and the district.

The team earned second-place honors at state competition in March at SUNY Binghamton. Per national Odyssey of the Mind policy, that means the team is entitled to participate in worlds competition.

However, Monroe-Woodbury School District policy only covers the cost of first place teams to attend. And this year, the $20,000 budget worlds competition budget has been exhausted due to a record four, first-place teams.

That means those teams are now fund raising for an additional $3,000 per team to make the trip a reality.

But for the second place team, that means raising $8,000, or 100 percent of the trip’s cost.

Through the help of the district’s Gifted/Talented program director and Odyssey of the Mind coordinator Debra Garling, the team secured a $2,200 grant from Creative Opportunities Unlimited to get them going.

$8,000 And get them going it did.

“It is s big number,” said Abigail Aguirre. “It’s very challenging but it will all pay off in the end. We’re feeling really good about what we’ve accomplished.”

The team even has a veteran fund raiser on board.

Jessica Rallo has experience in second-place OM team fund raising. As a former North Main Elementary student, she faced a similar challenge several years back when her team placed second and wanted to go to worlds competition. The group was tenacious in its fund raising efforts and secured the necessary donations to make the trip a reality.

“Everyone’s putting the time and effort into this,” said Jessica. “We’ll do this. This teaches you that you will be faced with challenges in life but you can get past them if you think creatively.”

The team knows they earned their place to perform their creative skit and are taking these last few weeks to see how they best refine and sharpen their performance among a spaghetti dinner and pancake breakfast fund raisers, and balancing that with school work and family obligations.

‘Organized chaos’ They remain undaunted in their belief they will be traveling to Iowa, calling themselves the “creative crusaders.”

They’ve even come up with their own Odyssey equations.

Heather Rutishauser: “Odyssey equals fun to the 10th power.”

Natalie Davidson: “Odyssey equals creativity. It’s the journey but it’s also the destination.”

Abigail Aguirre: “Odyssey equals a security blanket. It’s always going to be with you.”

Jessica Rallo: “Odyssey equals being yourself and being creative as you can be.”

Julia Auerfeld: “Odyssey equals life skills.”

Tim Rogers: “Odyssey equals organized chaos.”

Christopher Coughlin: “Odyssey equals the sum of all creativeness.”

The team knows it has some special financial challenges the other teams don’t but plans to do whatever it needs to be part of that 19 hour, two-day charter bus ride to Ames.

“Outside of the box isn’t outside of the box anymore,” added Tim. “We’ll do this.”

- Nancy Kriz