I am writing to share my gratitude and appreciation for the generous outpouring of support Cape's Odyssey of the Mind teams have received this year from those in our area, especially my fellow Miltonians and the businesses that are supporting the teams. For the uninitiated, Wikipedia describes OM as “a creative problem-solving program where team members present their solution at a competition to a predefined long-term problem that takes many months to complete and involves writing, design, construction and theatrical performance. A spontaneous portion of the competition has the team also generate solutions to a problem they have not seen before.”
This year, there are four Cape OM teams (out of the 29 from the State of Delaware) that have won first or second place for their problems and in their divisions who are going to the World Finals in Iowa at the end of May. Teams from Milton, Lewes and Rehoboth Elementary Schools and from Mariner Middle School are going. That means 28 students from Cape get to have this incredible experience, which comes with the daunting price tag of more than $1,000 per student.
When a call was put out on Facebook asking for donations to Cape OM’s 99 Pledges campaign, named and anonymous donors stepped up, some contributing hundreds of dollars to send our kids on their way. Restaurants and businesses including Shell We Bounce, Coastal Taproom and Bethany Blues have hosted dine-and-donate nights and Old World Breads generously donated unsold baked goods for a bake sale that helped the MES team raise money during the Milton town-wide yard sale.
As a parent, seeing the support from the community has been overwhelming. Miltonians have especially been a tremendous support, donating hundreds of dollars toward the kids’ trip. Neighbors we only know by sight have knocked on our door with envelopes of money to help our kids travel. What an incredible community! So please know how grateful we are to our community as a whole. We are lucky to be surrounded by such supportive people and businesses. And if you haven’t donated yet, there’s still time! Just search “99Pledges Cape Odyssey of the Mind” and help send our kids to Iowa!
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