St. Joe Odyssey of the Mind wins state
For the second year in a row, the Port St. Joe High School Odyssey of the Mind team has placed first in its division at the state tournament, earning them a berth in the World Finals at Michigan State University next month.
Under the direction of coach Sharon Hoffman, the team comprised of seniors Sara Beasley Flowers, Keely McAndrew and Handley Pitts, and juniors Dru Flowers and James Smith came home winners April 12 from the Florida Odyssey of the Mind state tournament in Orlando, which brought together nearly 250 teams amongst five age divisions, around 1,500 students.
Odyssey, an international educational organization that promotes creative, problem-solving through regional, state and world competitions for students from kindergarten through college, requires students to use teamwork, creativity and ingenuity to solve problems. The team chooses a “long term” problem at the start of the school year, based on an assigned theme with specific guidelines, and then works on creating and refining this solution throughout the year.
The team chose Division 3 Problem 3, “Cooking with the Classics,” and picked “Peter Pan” from a list of classic literature. The characters were tasked to creatively present a gourmet meal at a dinner party, with a dilemma for the characters to overcome and were scored on performing art and literary elements, creative construction elements, repurposing of materials and engineered gadget execution, to name a few.
During these competitions, they also have to appear before judges to solve a “spontaneous problem” in under five minutes.
The team placed first in long-term and fourth in spontaneous, making them first place overall.
The team now advances to the World Finals at Michigan State University May 21 to 25, being invited to compete at Worlds for the last five years and landing in the top 10 the last two years.
To help fund travel, lodging, and registration costs, at approximately $10,000, the Odyssey team has stepped up fundraising, which has included a “March Madness” bracket fundraiser, a Trivia Challenge, fried beignets, performances at The Grazin’ Goat and The Joe student art show opening reception, and a golf tournament at St Joseph Bay Country Club this Saturday, April 26, where businesses can sponsor holes and promote their offerings.
To contribute to the Odyssey fundraising, checks can be mailed or dropped off to Port St. Joe High School, Attn: Odyssey of the Mind Team, 100 Shark Drive, Port St. Joe, FL 32456. For more info, reach out to Sharon Hoffman at shoffman@gulf.k12.fl.us or (850) 227-4886, or Fred Flowers at fflowers@gulf.k12.fl.us
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.