Mainely Middle
Journal of the Maine Association for Middle
Level Education
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Volume 10, Number 1
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The Wicked Good Lamoine OM Team's Trip to the Worlds
Let me be a seeker of knowledge. Let me travel uncharted paths. And let me use my creativity to make this world a better place in which to live. This OM pledge guided a group of six Lamoine middle level students and their coaches on their nine month journey from the planning stages in Lamoine to their performance at the 1999 Odyssey of the Mind World Finals in Knoxville, Tennessee. Odyssey of the Mind is the largest creative problem-solving competition for children. Teams of children from kindergarten through college participate in OM. In 1999 over 800 teams from 48 states and 28 countries competed in the OM World Finals. Odyssey of the Mind's mission is to foster the development of creative thinking and problem-solving skills. OM teaches that great minds do not think alike, and that there are no right answers. It takes creative brainstorming to solve the problems that are anxiously awaited every new school year. This program enhances teamwork, cooperation, and risk-taking. It promotes great skills for children to develop for the future. Each OM team has at least one coach who may be a parent, teacher, or other interested adult. We were proud to have two of our mothers, Barbie Engstrom and Carol Duffy, as coaches for our team. Most members are individual schools and home schoolers. The OM Association, Inc. provides curriculum and other support material for teachers who want to integrate OM's creative problem-solving techniques into daily classroom activities. Teams compete against other teams in local, regional, and state competitions. The winners of the state competitions go on to compete in the world finals. Four of our team members went to the 1997 World Finals. From the 1998-9 problems, we chose to do CustOMer Service. Our problem was to present a performance involving a sales transaction between two or more co-workers and their customer(s). It needed to include a memorable customer, a demonstration of an original product which reflects some aspect of the culture in which the performance takes place and the resolution of a problem involving the business. We also needed to create a prop that changed and a technical element. Our team decided to reflect the Downeast Maine culture by serving original pure white Maine lobstah meat molded as a full lobstah served on sticks at our present day Lamoine, Maine Lobster Lick Stick Cafe. Our co-workers resolved a vegetarian customer?s complaint of offering nothing for vegetarians by creating original all pure vegetable lobstah lick sticks. Our first competition was at the Downeast Regionals held in Ellsworth in March. In addition to winning first place for CustOMer Service Division II, we also won a Ranatra Fusca Creativity Award. This award is given to an individual or a team that exhibits exceptional creativity. We received it for going above and beyond the technical requirements of our problem. We were excited that Lamoine School's CustOMer Service Division I team would join us at the State Competition. The April State Competition began with a parade of the teams and their flags in the Memorial Gym. After reciting the OM Pledge, the teams went on to their competitions. After watching our school's Division I team compete, we raced off to our spontaneous problem. We weren't suppose to say anything about the problem once we left the spontaneous room, so we left our coaches in the dark about how well we thought we had done. Returning to the Memorial Union, we put on our costumes and makeup. After giving our props a final check over we moved out into the hall to await our time to perform. The solutions were running late, and we had to wait over an hour in the hall to go into the holding room. Since we hadn't eaten lunch, some members almost passed out from hunger. Hunger was quickly forgotten as we moved our props into the Damn Yankee Room. After the judges had a chance to review our paperwork, we performed our solution. Even though our lobster escaped from death early, we managed a flawless, entertaining presentation. Members of our team received three awards at the closing ceremonies. Our whole team received an Outstanding Omer Award for our enthusiasm and teamwork during spontaneous. This award recognizes individuals or teams that serve as examples or role models and for exceptional skills. Miranda Engstrom received an individual Ranatra Fusca Award for her enthusiastic portrayal of Ms. Freedom. The highlight of the day was when we were announced as the first place winners of CustOMer Service Division II. We were on our way to Tennessee! After a few short weeks of raising money by a lobster raffle and accepting generous donations from people in the downeast area, we were ready to board our bus to Tennessee. The whole school came out to wait for the bus to arrive. When it arrived we first faced the challenge of getting all of our props on board. It was a tight squeeze for our biggest prop, our kitchen sink, but it fit. We loaded our luggage on, checked for stowaways, and then we were off to Bucksport to pick up their Division I Structure team. The trip to Tennessee holds the record for the longest time we ever had to sit still. Just before Portland, there was a car crash with glass everywhere. Our skillful driver managed to avoid a car that was coming right at us on the interstate. After the initial excitement, we settled down to a routine of watching movies and a straight through journey only stopping for meals. After twenty-six hours of traveling, we arrived at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. While looking for a parking spot we saw a statue of a man holding a torch in one hand and an orb in the other. The statue is the UT volunteer. The torch lights the way to the solution. The orb held the winged goddess of victory showing that we hold the solution to the world's problems in our hands. We were lucky enough to stay in the Holiday Inn in Knoxville for the competition. This meant that we had room service and a swimming pool at our disposal along with cable TV. Opening ceremonies in the arena started just a few hours after our arrival. There was a parade of state and country representatives and opening remarks by various OM officials. The ceremonies ended with a light show and fireworks. "Let the games begin!" We didn't have any competitions on Thursday, the first day, so we watched some of the competitions and checked out the University of Tennessee. We also did some pin trading. Every year different participating OM Associations design a pin to represent their state, providence, or country. This year Maine had a two part pin. It was Paul Bunyan and Blue Babe. Our goal as OMers was to try to trade all our pins in four days! Pin trading was very exciting. Other teams were so into pin trading that they were waiting for us to get off the bus. Almost all of our first pins were Illinois and Colorado. Other countries? pins were very hard to get because their pins were limited and ours weren?t. We went down to Tennessee with empty towels, and we sure came back with full towels. On Thursday night, a float and banner contest was held in the Thompson-Boling Arena. Miranda Engstrom was chosen by our team to participate in this event for the state of Maine. The Maine State OM winners had designed a banner that was bright orange. It had glittering letters that spelled our ?Maine OM attracts Orange Fever.? People from Ellsworth, Bangor, and Lamoine were the only Maine OMers who showed up to march or rather to rollerblade in the parade. Our team dressed up Miranda as a lobsterman. She met people on the floor from all 48 participating states and two different countries. This was certainly an experience that she will never forget. The next day was our big competition day. After an early breakfast we got dressed and began moving our props to the convention center attached to the Holiday Inn. It took us quite a few trips to move everything with only limited mishaps. We lost a nut off our captain?s wheel in the hotel lobby, but luckily Missy found it and a crisis was averted. When we reached the staging area, the staging judges asked Mrs. Duffy if all the team members spoke English. Mrs. Duffy?s witty reply was, "We speak Maine. I think it's the same thing." Come to find out, the team competing before us were from Poland and the judges were confused. Once the language confusion was straightened out, we were moved into the staging area. The room was decorated with many inspirational sayings and large wall maps. We located and labeled Lamoine on the map as the staging judges checked our paperwork. Next we moved into the performance room. After our props were moved in our coaches wished us luck and went to sit in the audience. The day was also Lauren's birthday so the judges and the audience sang "Happy Birthday" to her. Missy read the synopsis of our solution in front of a packed room and the OM official taping team. The timer asked, "Team are you ready?" We enthusiastically replied, "Ayuh!" When the officials were asked if they were ready, they tried to copy our "Ayuh" reply in their various accents. Then we were on! It was our team's best performance ever. The lobster escaped on time, not early, and everything else went off like clockwork. We were well received with everyone on their feet clapping. After the officials talked to us about how everything worked, we quickly cleared the stage, leaving behind only memories in the official's minds. With the pressure off for the day, we had time for pin trading, souvenir shopping, and riding escalators. That evening it was our coaches' turn to compete. The Coaches Problem was really interesting to see, especially the wacky costumes. When Barbie Engstrom and Carol Duffy, our coaches, were up, they had to wait until they were announced. Then they waited until the judge said, "Go!" As soon as the judge said, "Go," the pilot, Mrs. Duffy, had to run to the other side of the marked area and wait. In the meanwhile, Mrs. Engstrom had to construct a plane out of paper and then attached it to a vehicle. Our vehicle was a squeaky lobster on a homemade car. The coaches were allowed to have outside assistance, so the team made their car. The vehicle had to make its way to Mrs. Duffy which we?re afraid to say did not happen. Fortunately Mrs. Duffy was allowed to grab the plane and go back to her area. There she had to fly it over a three foot bar about five feet away. That did not happen either. Actually they did fine at practice, but they Aren't use to the pressure of competition! Their costumes were great though. Mrs. Duffy's costume was the one to be scored. She had on our team shirt, a shower cap, goggles, and a scarf that stuck out from her neck. Mrs. Engstrom wore a captain's hat and a lobster vest. All of the coaches there were a sight. You should have seen them because they were too wacky to describe. A moonlight water fight followed the coaches competition. We filled water balloons in our hotel room, Mrs. Duffy grabbed her watergun, and we left the hotel well equipped to begin the attack. We met up with other Maine OMers at a pond across the street from the hotel. The other Omers weren't playing fair! They had wastebaskets filled with smelly pond water to drench people. After an hour of frolicking, we returned to the Holiday Inn soaking wet and cold, but happy. We did wonder who would be mopping up the hotel lobby and the elevators! Saturday was our last day at the World Finals. We spent the morning drying our wet sneakers with hair blowers and practicing for the spontaneous part of our competition. After a lunch by the pond (no water fights this time!) we traveled to the university on the shuttle bus. We traded more pins while we waited for our spontaneous time. Our coaches always make sure we're at the competition sites early. Before entering the spontaneous building we were given official OM kazoos and taught a song to perform at the Closing Ceremonies. It was a hot day and we first were moved into a tight, hot holding room. After we finished the spontaneous problem, we came out to a cheering crowd. We performed our closing song "Lamoine Lobster Licksticks" and returned to the hotel to rest up for the evening's activities. Actually the team members went swimming, and the coaches went to watch a few more teams present their long term solutions. The Maine OMers wore funny lobster hats to the Closing Ceremonies. Most of us brought ours home for yet another souvenir. Mrs. Duffy traded hers to a police officer for a university police pin so that she didn?t have to wear hers anymore. One of the opening events of the ceremonies was a performance by the World's largest kazoo band. Bryan forgot how to play a kazoo, but luckily there were thousands to cover his part! Susan from Sesame Street accepted a creativity award on behalf of the CTW producer. As she walked to the podium, the whole arena reverberated with the Sesame Street Song. Although we didn't place high enough to hear our team announced at the ceremonies, we were featured in a video clip of CustOMer Service long term presentations. After a short stay at the teen party, we returned to the hotel to check our final standing. When Mrs. Engstrom saw the scores giving us tenth place meaning that our goal had been reached, she yelled, "We made tenth place!" She was so excited that she kept yelling this and hitting Mrs. Duffy in the arm. Happy that we had made our goal, we went to the pool for one last swim. The OM pledge ends with this line: "And let me use my creativity to make this world a better place in which to live." Creativity can bear many fruits. We won't be able to patch the hole in the ozone with glue, duct tape, and balsa wood, but we may find a way to fix it. Song and dance won?t stop famine, but working together could. Doing a funny skit won't stop war, but it could teach young people to think things through and come to an agreement and a reasonable solution. Using skills we have learned in OM we certainly could help solve the problems of the world. |