Moore County Kids Advancing to World Finals!

On Saturday, April 2, seven 7th graders from Moore County Public Schools not only placed third in the state at the North Carolina Odyssey of the Mind State Finals; they won the only long-term Ranatra Fusca award for extreme creativity in the entire state! (Watch the priceless video of their shocked faces when the emcee announced their team's award HERE . Read the front-page article published about this team in the April 20th edition of The Pilot HERE .)

 

Now, this team of creative problem solvers is advancing to Iowa State University May 25-28 to complete in the 2022 Odyssey of the Mind World Finals. And they need your help.

 

Because of redistricting in their school district, this long-time team (whose original members have been together since 3rd grade) were split between two different middle schools this year. In order to remain together, this tight-knit team elected to compete as a community group instead of a school-sponsored one. (Massive thanks to FirstHealth of the Carolinas for their sponsorship!)

But this means that raising funds to compete at World Finals has become considerably more challenging, because they don't have the backing  or name of a school sponsor.

 

It costs $650 per team member for room and board for the event at Iowa State University, and plane tickets are now close to $800 each. This doesn't include the cost of shipping their hand-constructed props, which currently consume an entire trailer, their shuttle bus tickets, travel food there and back or any other incidentals throughout the week. The estimated total for each team member to attend this event this year from Moore County is approximately $1600-1700 each.

 

We would love to partner with these dedicated problem solvers who have invested five to 10 hours per week every week since September writing their own skit, building their own props, designing and programming a robot and even creating their own scene change music. They've poured weekends and holidays into painting, practicing, performing and perfecting their solution, and with a Ranatra Fusca now under their belts, we know they'll go far.

 

Thank you so much for absolutely any help you can provide in supporting these creative kiddos. 100 percent of the funds raised will be divided among the accounts of the seven team members competing at World Finals.