The team helped a local preschool re-open safely during a pandemic by building outdoor sensory tables, toys, and other items that could provide educational opportunities for young students as they returned to the school, which was held primarily outside. They helped younger students in their community find a new sense of normalcy and helped parents go back to work knowing their children were safe. The team utilized their creative problem solving and building skills, repurposing items and fundraising when needed. It then decided to expand the project by building an outdoor exercise/ sensory path for the school. They worked closely with the school and even presented their project to the parents to get feedback and improve their solution to make sure it was safe for young kids.

According to the group’s coach, here are just a few ways OM skills helped, “They learned by cutting and measuring lumber, drilling, screwing and nailing the projects together, along with painting and staining. Through their continued pursuit to help the preschool, they had to utilize public speaking, design and layout, basic material estimation for budgeting, development of PowerPoint presentations, customer relations as they were listening to what other needs are and adjusting the plan based on the feedback. The team continues to learn new skills as they are starting to engage the community by developing flyers for the fundraising, and will be doing some small presentations on the vision in order to get additional help and funding for the project. These girls are continuing to be role models for the community as they lead by example, and teach and mentor others along the way, while still really enjoying what they do.”

This group has a passion for helping others any time an opportunity arises.  They successfully used the skills they have learned through Odyssey of the Mind and can be proud of their skills and what they accomplished. Congrats to this year’s Angels!

2020-21 Odyssey Angels (youtube.com)

Updated 1/23/2023

The Smart Cookies have continued their creative problem-solving and building journey! Watch how they are progressing on their creative community service project.

2020-21 Odyssey Angles update (youtube.com)