Fifth-graders Caden Morrison, Claira Deuel, Erin Murphy, and Amara Brinkman were shining stars at the Region 15 Odyssey of the Mind competition on Saturday at Mount Morris.
From October until March, the four along with Selena Barrios, who was unable to make the competition, worked on their solution to the long-term problem. In doing so, they wrote two songs and a skit, designed instruments, scenery, and "band merch", and created costumes, hairstyles, and makeup that tied everything together. They also practiced scenarios for the spontaneous portion of the competition, as much as they could for something that they would have no prior knowledge of. The team gave up countless lunches, advisements, and study halls, and stayed after school several times per week, including some Fridays and one Saturday. They worked at home every night to memorize lines and lyrics and put their singing voices to work.
I am thrilled to announce that their hard work paid off. Their clever performance kept the audience laughing and their songs had the audience in awe. With a near-perfect calculated score of 347 out of 350, which includes a score of 99.33 out of 100 on the spontaneous problem, the team took home the first-place trophy. They will attend the New York State competition in Syracuse on April 13th.