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Please Help!   World Competition-Bound OM team still in need of funds!
The Erickson-Thompson team is in the process of fundraising for its trip to the World Odyssey of the Mind Competition.  The team will be hosting a garage sale in support of its trip.  If you have a donation to make for that, contact Sandy Erickson at esandyl@yahoo.com.  More details on time, date and location for the garage sale will be coming soon.  Also, direct donations would be great.  Just make your check out to the Carnegie Vanguard PTO and designate it for Odyssey of the Mind team.  You can drop it off at the school office anytime before May 15.  Thanks for your support of this terrific group of Carnegie students and parents!
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If you notice an adult with seven elementary to high school kids groveling in a dumpster, it’s not always the unfortunate.  It could be an Odyssey of the Mind (OM) coach and hre team sifting for treasures to make a masterpiece.  That was the pathway the Carnegie Vanguard High School OM Erickson/Thomson team took in its journey through Regional and State Competitions to win the right to represent Texas at the Odyssey of the Mind World Competition in Lansing, Michigan this upcoming May. 

OM was developed over 25 years ago to allow children to maintain their creativity, to explore alternative ways of doing things and to hone their skills as team players.  Since then, literally thousands of elementary to college students have competed in one of five offered problems, from theatrical to mechanical challenges to working within the world of classic art and literature.  Problems, or guidelines, are set out each year by the national organization.  Teams then interpret those boundaries into a work of art, a play, a robot, or perhaps a balsa wood structure that will hold unbelievable amounts of weight.  All this is done with the mantra that if someone else would easily think of this idea, we don’ want to use it. No common ideas allowed.

The Carnegie Vanguard 10th graders on the Erickson/Thomson team began their journey at the beginning of the school year in September.  Weekly meetings discussing the interpretation and what the answer should be melded into an idea for a play, and then a script was formed.  After the Christmas holidays, meetings began occurring twice weekly with a lot of trial and error in formulating the set design.  Because there is a small budget allowed, the set was designed using two refrigerator boxes.  Hearing of a warehouse that was moving and had a small pile of discards set the team off on a treasure hunt.  The "prize" of the trip was a box of large white shop towels that the team dyed many, many, many colors to create a back drop and a dress for one of the required locations in the problem. Rolls of plastics, a metallic paper material, clear plastic fluorescent light covers and many odds and ends left the team with a load of treasures from which to design its set. As the required arctic world began taking shape, the team scavenged blue material from trash bags, water bottles, food wrappers and many other blue materials which resulted in a beautifully textured and designed mosaic of an arctic scene. 
 
This design and play allowed Carnegie Vanguard’Erickson/Thomson team to compete with 136 other Texas teams at state competition on March 31.  There were five problems presented that were divided into divisions of elementary, junior high school, high school and college.  Only the top two teams from each problem and division are allowed to compete at the world competition level.  The estimated number of teams competing at World Competition this year is over 300 teams with as many as 32 international countries represented. 

The Erickson/Thomson team is being coached by Carngie parent volunteers Sandy Erickson and Fran Thomson and includes sophomores Stephanie Erickson, Katie Thomson, Michelle Garcia, Ryan Vasquez, Elin Shaddox and Corina Gomez.  The next six weeks will not only be filled with perfecting the problem for competition, but also fund raising to collect the $10,000 it will take to make this trip. 

Coach Sandy Erickson had this to say: "My daughter Steph and I have been to several world competitions, and the most valuable aspect of OM is how the OM community fosters team work and support of each other, even if that is the team that can beat you at world. We sincerely want everyone to be the best and we celebrate everyone’s successes."

Carnegie Vanguard fielded not one but two OM teams this year.  The Dinn team, coached by Carngie parent Diana Dinn, also had a great competitive season with a first place win at the Regional OM Competition.  Team members included junior Joshua Dinn and sophomores Gabriel Dinn, Sam Wilburn, Jenny Kutner, Meghan Spector, Kimmy Temple and Tyler Broussard.