Greenwood Friends School

A team including four Greenwood Middle School students took first place in the regional Odyssey of the Mind competition at Mansfield University in March. GFS students Cameron Galt, Aidan McDonald, Walker Dowd-Whipple and Jessa Wood, along with three students from other area schools, performed an eight-minute skit that they wrote and directed themselves in the weeks leading up to the competition day, following all of the parameters spelled out in the Odyssey of the Mind "problem". Coached by GFS parents Rand Whipple, of the Box of Light Theater, and Steve Wood, the Box of Light team entitled the solution to their problem "2008: A Space Odyssey . . . of the Mind."

Among the eccentric characters in the play, one spoke only in sound effects and one could not use the proper names of any objects: You have read this story on "an electronic, glass-fronted, light-emitting container", for example. In addition to the problem, on the day of the competition they had to spontaneously create and perform a shorter sketch, without any outside help at all.

Last year's Box of Light team won an OMER award for their teamwork and courtesy. "The competition is an absolutely wonderful thing, challenging, supportive and cooperative," says Rand Whipple. "The OOTM program has much in common with the GFS experience, and what the GFS kids bring to the team is truly an asset."

Having won in Mansfield, the team moves on to the statewide Odyssey of the Mind competition in Altoona on April 12 – we wish the best to the Box of Light team!