C.J. Hooker wins first in state's Odyssey competition

GOSHEN — The C. J. Hooker Middle School’s “Odyssey Angels” Odyssey of the Mind team showed its creative talents when it placed first in its division at the State Competition on March 31 at SUNY Binghamton.

Teammates Mackenzie Kurek, Kate Laskoski, Freddi Semel, Darcy McDowell, Abigail Lewis, Reilly Miller and Kelly Fellenzer, under the guidance of coaches Beth Laskoski and Kathy Kurek, will compete in the 33 Annual Odyssey of the Mind World Finals at Iowa State University.

The competition, to be held May 23-26, will feature hundreds of teams from countries around the world including Canada, China, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Malaysia, Poland, Singapore, and Uzbekistan.

About Odyssey of the Mind There are two components to Odyssey of the Mind: long-term and spontaneous.

For long-term, students must create an eight minute skit in response to a problem synopsis given beforehand. These change every year and fall into five general categories: mechanical/vehicle, technical performance, classics, structure and performance.

According to the Odyssey of the Mind website, teams who participated in the “Odyssey Angels” long-term problem had to create and present a performance where a group of students travel throughout one or more team-created places where they encounter negative situations. These “Odyssey Angels” change what they find and turn them into positive situations.

On their journey, they help two individuals with different problems and help save an entire community from a bad situation. One Odyssey Angel cannot speak, and another has a special team-created power.

The members of the C. J. Hooker Middle School team took a unique approach to their solution problem. The Virus (Reilly Miller) and her sidekick (Abigail Lewis) are draining all the energy out of Tech Town. The Odyssey Angels (Kate Laskoski and Mackenzie Kurek) must help a Couch Potato (Darcy McDowell) and a book suffering from Scholaticosis (Freddi Semel/Kelly Fellenzer) before they can defeat the virus and return the energy to their community.

(Original team member Freddi Semel was unable to attend the State Competition. Her spot was filled by classmate Kelly Fellenzer. All seven girls will compete at the World Finals in Iowa.)

During the spontaneous portion of the competition, five students from each team participate in an on-the-spot problem that is verbal, hands-on or verbal hands-on. For example, during a hands-on spontaneous problem, students may be asked to use certain materials to create a catapult that will project marbles.