Life was certainly not easy for Longmont’s first settlers.

That was the general agreement among eight girls who were taking turns vigorously turning the crank on an old-fashioned wooden ice cream maker.

Ana Greer , 7, prepares to twist hot steel with the help of blacksmith Chase Carlton at "Searchers, Seekers and Settlers" camp in Longmont. Lindsay J.C. Lack photo

“This is a lot of work, and it makes me tired,” said Tera Toor, 9. “But it will taste good when we are done!”

For two weeks in June and July, two groups of 7- to 10-year-olds learned what life was like for early settlers in Longmont as they participated in the “Searchers, Seekers and Settlers” day camp run by the Longmont Museum and Cultural Center.

The camp is part of the larger summer day camp program the museum offers, which includes four art and cultural camps designed and run directly by the museum, and six science camp sessions offered through the CU Science Discovery program. Sessions cover a wide variety of topics, including art, electronics, pioneers and settlers, kid’s chemistry and the Plains Indians culture.

“We want to appeal to a wide variety of interests, and we are constantly tweaking our camps to make sure that they are fresh and fun,” said Jill Overlie, curator of education at the Longmont Museum.

The “Searchers, Seekers and Settlers” day camp is based on historical accounts of pioneer life in the Longmont area, Overlie said. The camp is held at the St. Vrain Historical Society’s Old Mill Park in Longmont so that the park’s historic cabins, milk house and gazebo can give campers a glimpse of life in early Longmont, Overlie said.

“We really appreciate being able to partner with the St. Vrain Historical Society and use Old Mill Park,” she said. “It’s a wonderful fit for the camp.”

Campers got to try some early settler activities as part of their week. The youngsters twisted ropes and tried their hands at lassoing, dipped wax candles, heard about life as a Mountain Man and churned butter and ice cream. The campers also trekked to Left Hand Creek to try their hands at panning for gold as they experienced a bit of Longmont’s early mining history.

While the sunny day was hot, the campers agreed that it was cool sitting in the Hauke Milk House as they cranked the ice cream.
“Why was it important to keep the milk house cool?” asked summer program assistant Haila Mirto.

“Because you don’t want your milk or butter to spoil,” said Eva D’Epagnier, 10, of Longmont.

But while the group in the milk house remained cool, campers in another area of the park were feeling more heat – and loving it. Two craftsmen blacksmiths, Chase Carlton and Jeremy Conley, were teaching campers about their craft. The two men, members of the National Center for Craftsmanship, were giving campers a chance to make a metal reed lamp by bending, twisting and pounding iron into the correct shape.

“It’s really hard to hit the metal to make it flat,” said Ana Greer, 10, of Longmont as she pounded on her piece of metal. “Being a blacksmith is a hard job.”

The camp is fun and a “really good way to teach a little history,” said lead instructor Jennifer Tjornehoj, who also is a high school teacher. “Immersing the campers into the activities helps them recall the facts they learn. I think it’s a wonderful way to bring history to life.”

The Longmont Museum camps use teen volunteers to help run the camps, and returning volunteers Hope Genty, 16, of Longmont and Meagan Chriswell, 16, of Lyons enjoy their time at the Searchers, Seekers and Settlers camp.

“I really enjoy working at this particular camp because it is fun to do the activities and work with the campers,” Genty said. Chriswell agreed, adding she also finds it “really rewarding” to volunteer.

First-time volunteer Tyler Brazitis, 16, of Longmont helped campers make rope. He said he had been able to put his leadership skills to use by volunteering at the camp, “and it is a lot of fun,” he said.

The Longmont Museum still has a few openings for its upcoming camp focusing on the life of Plains Indians. To register for the Hunters, Artists and Tipi Makers camp to be held July 26 – 30, call the museum at 303-651-8374. Some scholarships are available.

Email: kcglasscock@comcast.net

Allyson Willey, 8, decorates her rain stick during Girls Scout camp at the Kiwa Korral in Lyons. Lindsay J.C. Lack photo

Then it progressed to chants for taking attendance – “Unit 3, shout with me, Comets, comets, whoosh!” — followed by a much more respectful flag-raising ceremony led by the girls.

As the girls scattered for a day filled with learning about the weather, making rain sticks and clouds and hearing from a meteorologist, they also were reminded that the day held something special – cooking their lunches over a campfire or by using a camp stove.

“It’s a really busy day today,” said unit leader Giselle Klingberg of Longmont as she hurried to her unit area.

The Girl Scout Kiwa Day Camp is sponsored by Girl Scout-trained volunteers from Longmont, Niwot, Lyons and the surrounding areas. The week-long day camp, which will run again this month, serves about 200 elementary-age girls each summer. It has a different theme each year – it’s “Cool Science at Kiwa” this summer — and gives area Girl Scouts a chance to enjoy the outdoors while trying new activities, learning and practicing outdoor skills, hearing from special speakers and doing arts and crafts.

On one recent afternoon, younger girls were learning about cloud shapes as the girls fashioned clouds out of cotton balls and glue. Most of the girls were constructing cumulus clouds, but Sophia Cousins, 9, of Longmont had a slightly different idea.

“I’m making a heart cloud,” she said.

Allyson Willey, 8, of Longmont concentrated on decorating her rain stick and making it sound just right.

“I want it to sound like really hard rain, or maybe hail,” she said as she poured uncooked rice and beans into the tube.

The smell of campfires began to drift through camp as the day’s speaker, meteorologist and Channel 7 weatherman Corey Christianson, wrapped up his presentation about Colorado’s weather patterns. The girls headed back to their units to cook camp lunches ranging from hot dogs on a stick to hamburgers, burritos and quesadillas cooked over the fire, along with “gourmet” scrambled eggs boiled in a bag on a camp stove. And, of course, lunch ended with a big round of S’mores.

While camp is designed to be fun (and a little educational) for the younger girl scouts, it also offers a chance for older scouts – those in middle school and high school — to hone their leadership and planning skills.

For the past two years, the camp’s daily program has been run and taught by program aides (PAs), according to camp director Siobhan Murtha of Longmont. These older Girl Scouts are trained to lead and plan events and to work with younger girls. PAs take on silly camp names such as Polka Dot, Kitten and Fuzzy Elmo as part of working with younger girls, but they are serious about keeping day camp running smoothly and effectively working with the younger scouts. A trio of senior PAs – this summer it is Longmont High School senior Samantha Harroun, Niwot High School graduate Emma Reider, and Niwot High School junior Dana Glasscock – oversee the approximately 40 PAs who volunteer in the day camp.

“The adults pretty much just handle the financial aspects,” Murtha said.”We tell our adult unit leaders that the PAs run camp.”

A pilot program underway at the Kiwa day camp since fall has given even more responsibility to senior PAs, Murtha said. The senior PAs and a committee of older PAs fully planned this summer’s camp – generating, researching and implementing program ideas, handling logistics for running the camp, and dealing with program aide and safety issues. Committee members also are providing the initial training to a new group of younger PAs.

“The PA committee members are really vested in camp,” Murtha said. “And they are practicing and learning good skills, such as how to truly lead a large organization, mentor their peers and the importance of discretion. They have even gotten to the point where they are looking for their own replacements so that the program can continue when they graduate and leave.”

“By and large, our adults are in awe of what the teenagers have accomplished,” she said.

Providing good role models for younger scouts is what drew Katie Rose of Niwot to serve on the PA camp committee. “I want the younger Girl Scouts at camp to be able to look up to us as role models, and then have those girls want to come back and do this themselves,” she said.

She was echoed by Kelly Herbst of Longmont, another PA committee member. “Younger Girl Scouts need to see that they can stay in scouts through high school and do something that counts,” she said.

“We have the largest PA program in the entire Girl Scouts of Colorado Council, and I think it is because of the responsibility they can have at day camp,” Murtha said.

“I really like volunteering for my week at Kiwa,” said adult volunteer Joyce Palaszewski of Longmont, who has volunteered for 13 summers. “I really enjoy the girls’ laughter, the fun and excitement at camp. And has been really neat to see the older girls grow over the years and now become absolutely wonderful leaders.”

Email: kcglasscock@comcast.net

Erin Ruiz, 18, sprays silly string in to the air as Cooper Cramblet, 18, readies to throw his cap at Erie High School graduation in Erie on Saturday. Kasia Broussalian photo

New graduates — under clear skies, rising temperatures and a calm breeze Saturday morning — tossed their caps to the wind after celebrating the past and embracing their unwritten futures with thousands of friends and family members.

“It’s graduation, and you get put out into the real world now,” said a nervous Bethanie Foote, 18, before walking onto Erie High’s football field to accept her diploma along with 139 of her peers. “These four years have been crazy. It went by really fast.”

St. Vrain, unlike the Boulder Valley School District, still honors valedictorians for being the top academic achievers in their senior class. The honor this year was shared by seven seniors at Erie High, which also distributed special tassels to be worn Saturday morning by graduates who are long-time Erie residents.

Brandon Pletcher, 17, who has been going to school in Erie since the first grade, was among that select group of students.

“I think the black tassel is cool,” said Pletcher, who was more focused on getting through the ceremony and on to a day of graduation parties, including his own. “I kind of just want it to be over.”

Northwest of Erie, at Niwot High, a similar crowd of 335 St. Vrain seniors — along with their parents and friends — celebrated their commencement into “the real world.”

“Here is where we take the next step in our lives,” said Niwot student body president Leah Sheree Saraceni. “And although some of us can’t wait to get out of this town, we are so lucky to have grown up in such a loving community.”

ne of three valedictorians, Paige Marissa Tollefson, said every senior and their families helped shape the network of support that brought all the students to this point of achievement and transition. And, Tollefson said, even she — known for being an elite gymnast with a remarkable work ethic — needed the help.

“This might surprise you all, but I’m not a big fan of school,” she said. “I hate waking up in the morning, and I do not enjoy homework.”

Tollefson said her mom would ask why she does so well in her classes when she complains so much.

“I said, ‘If I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it well,” she said, letting that be her advice to her classmates. “Each of us has the ability to excel.”

Niwot English teacher Becky Shaw-Myers helped the students define excellence by sharing with them some of what she has learned in her years of trials and triumphs. First, she said, life presents challenges.

“If you are walking through hell, keep going,” she said.

The thing you assumed was bad might turn out to be a blessing or make you a stronger person. And, Shaw-Myers said, after struggling with her husband through leukemia, she learned “what is really important in life.”

“It’s people and relationships,” she said, acknowledging her students for being important teachers and relationships in her life. “I humbly thank you.”

From left to right, Catherine C. Owen of Skyline High School, Carly Hale of Longmont High School, Scott Hardy of Silver Creek High School and Julie Knaus of Longmont High School line up for photos after receiving awards from the Longmont Community Foundation Monday. Nine high school students received awards for academic, personal and volunteer accomplishments. Nissa LaPoint photo

Terry Kroenung teaches at Niwot High School, has written several books and plays, and plays William Shakespeare at the Colorado Renaissance Festival each summer. Kira Horvath photo

He teaches full time at Niwot High School and in his spare time writes novels and plays, has acted on the stage and has served as the Bard himself at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival during the summer. He also has Asperger’s syndrome, an autism-related disorder often characterized, according to The Merck Manual, by abnormal social skills, eccentric behavior and intense interest in specific subjects.

Kroenung, pronounced Cronin, is 52 and has taught since 1991. He is in his sixth year at Niwot High School, where he teaches honors and pre-International Baccalaureate English, creative writing and American literature. He began teaching part time in Illinois and, in his words, “made every mistake in the book.”

Then he made a career detour when he worked for five years as the head teacher on a wagon train, run by Vision Quest, that rolled about 50 inner city kids, mostly black and Hispanic, from Pennsylvania to Florida. The program was meant to steer young felons away from criminal behavior.

“The kids were hard-core juvenile offenders, the ones who’d been convicted of arson, burglary, you name it,” he said.

Mules pulled covered wagons and horses carried safety outriders who directed traffic. “In fact, the first wagon came from the TV show ‘Rawhide’ or ‘Gunsmoke,’” he said. “The wrangler was John Wayne’s stunt double in The Alamo, supposedly.

“We did a lot of encounter groups on the road, and I broke up lots of fights, which got me hyper-extended joints and plenty of muscle pulls,” he said, shaking his head.

The kids lived in tepees and slept in sleeping bags. “But they didn’t run away because they were so far away from home,” he said.

In the old West, hardships and problems went hand in hand with wagon trains, and Kroenung’s journeys were no exception. There was the time the Ku Klux Klan shot at them and the incident with a copperhead that bit a kid, and then there were the hurricanes they endured.

He said the program couldn’t keep all the kids from returning to trouble but “it was a lot more effective than jail.”

Eventually, enough was enough, and his girlfriend, Janet, whom he later married, persuaded him to move to Colorado, where he’s been for the past 12 years. Before finding a home at Niwot High, he taught in a couple of school districts and at the junior college level.

When he’s not in the classroom, he writes and has crafted four plays, created a story titled “Lonely Crutch” that was printed in “Broken Links, Mended Lives,” which is a Colorado Book Award finalist in the anthology category, and published a fantasy novel for young people called “Brimstone and Lily.”

The book’s main characters are a female Huck Finn named Verity and a smart-aleck, shape-shifting sword called Jasper who team up in a quest to fight forces of evil during the Civil War. The novel contains numerous references to famous books such as “Huckleberry Finn,” “Moby-Dick” and “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

The book is the first in a trilogy. The second, “Jasper’s Foul Tongue,” is nearly done and sits in a thick three-ring binder near his desk at school. He plans to finish it this month, edit and rework it during the summer and publish it by Sept. 1. It also includes allusions to well-known literary works such as “King Lear,” “The Odyssey” and “Don Quixote,” he said.

And the third volume?

“I’ve got no clue what it’ll be about, but it’ll be set in Napoleonic France and Elizabethan England,” Kroenung said.

He said he writes a little bit every day.

“I can write 10 pages a day, but it’s usually about five or seven,” he said. He has to break it down into smaller pieces because “if you face 370 pages all at once, it’s overwhelming.”

He chose juvenile fantasy as his genre because his wife was reading Harry Potter and said he could do something like that.

“Basically, my wife dared me,” he said.

Setting “Brimstone and Lily” — which just won the bronze medal in the international Independent Publisher Book Awards in the fantasy-science fiction category — during the Civil War ties in with his own Army experience when he was posted in Virginia, five miles from the site of the battles at Bull Run. He went in as a private, ran the gym at his base and left six years later as a first lieutenant after having been once named the post’s soldier of the year. While there, he got involved with Civil War re-enactments.

Kroenung coaches the school’s Knowledge Bowl team, which placed second in the state last year, and he has qualified for Jeopardy twice, though he hasn’t been called to perform on the show yet. “I’m still on a list somewhere,” he said, adding, “I guess I better check on that.”

On weekends in June and July, he heads to Larkspur, where he plays William Shakespeare at the Colorado Renaissance Festival.

“I give speeches, do sword fights and taunt people,” he said.

He and his wife live in Loveland with one basset hound that’s 15 and another that’s 2, as well as a 4-foot iguana. He has a stepdaughter and two young step-grandchildren.

Email: bruceleaf@comcast.net

Universal High School graduate Whitney Claus gives her fellow students some words of wisdom as UHS Counselor Susan Metzler, left, and UHS Progrm Coordinator Mary Kennedy look on during their commencement ceremony. Kira Horvath photo

The graduates – Whitney Claus, Eric Lennard and Sarah Wasson – designed their own ceremony. Instead of the usual speakers praising the graduates and congratulating them on entering their futures, they were the stars of an “urban art show” to showcase their achievements during their time at Universal High School.

“We like to do things our own way, so we wanted something different for graduation,” Lennard said.

The UHS grads hung examples of their photography, creative writing and newspaper stories, drawings and graphic art, music – and even two dresses sewn by Claus – to showcase the creativity and style they brought to their high school years.

“And we all have to have good food, so we have appetizers and cake at our graduation ceremony too,” Lennard said.

The Universal High School program, housed at Silver Creek High School, offers self-directed learners an alternative to the traditional structured classes in high school. UHS students can choose from a menu of options for their classes, including college courses at Front Range Community College or the University of Colorado, online courses, correspondence courses, independent study and traditional high school classes. The students also must complete 100 hours of career exploration and 100 hours of service learning as graduation requirements.

“Not many of the other students know that UHS exists, so they look into our rooms and think we are the big dorks of the school,” said Lennard. “But really, we have it sweet!”

Claus, who is graduating at 16, attended UHS for her junior and senior years after being home schooled.

“I wanted a public school experience, but I was younger and a little hesitant about a large high school,” she said. “And I like to do things my way, so this seemed like a good fit.”

While at UHS, Claus took both AP and regular classes at Silver Creek, and explored careers in music and teaching through her involvement in her church, along with martial arts.

“I have a black belt, so I taught classes too,” she said. “I found out that I like inspiring kids.”

Claus said she will attend Front Range Community College in the fall before transferring to a bigger university, where she plans to earn a degree in school counseling.

“I think UHS really helped me figure out what path I should follow,” Clause said.

Lennard, 18, said the greatest gift he received from his three years at UHS was “discovering what I want to do with my life.”

“I was that kid who just wasn’t happy in the traditional school system,” he said. “UHS gave me a chance to explore what I was interested in and learn at my pace.”

Lennard worked with the Math, Science and Engineering Achievement program teacher at Lyons Middle School this year to fulfill his career exploration hours, and discovered his passion – teaching. He will attend the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley this fall to study history and secondary education. He plans to teach at a traditional high school “to get some experience,” and then establish a program similar to UHS at the school.

“I know how hard it is to be a different kind of student,” he said.

Traditional school classes were “just too confining” for Wasson, 17.

“I wanted more freedom to delve in depth into subjects, and even though I was in the pre-International Baccalaureate program, I just didn’t have that freedom,” Wasson said.

Universal High School allowed Wasson to find her passion in writing. She pens short stories, fiction and poetry, and also writes for Silver Creek’s school newspaper. Attending Universal High School’s non-traditional program “helped me explore and find what I’m passionate about, which is writing,” she said.

She also was able to focus on an independent study course in “classic literature” to learn how great writers in the past honed their craft.

Wasson took classes at Front Range Community College, and has already earned about 24 college credits. She plans to finish her general education college class requirements, then transfer to the University of Colorado.

Will the three graduates miss their time in their non-traditional high school?

“Once in UHS, forever in UHS,” Clause said.

“We’ll have to have a really small reunion in five years,” Wasson said.

“Well, I’ll miss it, but I think I’m ready to be done,” Lennard said, grinning.

Email: kcglasscock@comcast.net

He’s also an achiever.

Daniel Vigil, 18, works on writing music while hanging out in the lobby of the Inn Between in Longmont, where he has lived since January. Last week, Vigil graduated from Araphahoe Ridge High School in Boulder and earned a collision-repair certification from Boulder TEC. Julie Fowler photo

That’s because ever since he can remember, this quiet, brown-eyed 18 year old has been working to get himself into a situation better than the one in which he was raised.

Vigil spent most of his life bouncing from living with his mom to his dad to foster families to a guardian family. He was exposed to substance abuse and gang life. Eventually in January, at the age of 17, he found his way to Longmont’s Inn Between, which provides transitional housing for homeless families and individuals.

“I’m the stereotypical one that got lucky,” says Vigil, who isn’t afraid to talk about what he’s been through. “I learned from my family’s mistakes.”

Last week, Vigil graduated from Arapahoe Ridge High School in Boulder and earned his collision repair certification through Boulder TEC. In addition, he also completed the Front Range Community College Emergency Medical Technician program, which sets him up for getting certified if he chooses that option.

Vigil sees these accomplishments as skills that give him a way to make money. But his true passion, the one constant when everything else fell apart, the thing that makes his heart sing, is music – playing the saxophone, in particular.

“I’ve been into music all my life. I’ve used it to cope. It’s a good thing, music therapy,” he says.

Vigil says he started dabbling on the piano and tried the cello for two weeks.

“But I was short and it was bigger than me,” he says, matter-of-fact.

That’s when he found the saxophone.

Most days he can be found at the Longmont Youth Center composing and practicing his sax during school hours, then helping with the music and theater group later in the day. He’s also playing in the Jesters Dinner Theater performance of “The Music Man”. Ultimately, Vigil’s goal is to go to college to study music.

When talking to Vigil you know you’re with an independent, determined soul who has worked hard to get to where he is and who will impact the world around him.

“I learned how to be independent by people who were unreliable,” he says. “It was pretty rough. But in January, I was able to help myself by moving into the Inn Between, which was the best choice I’ve ever made. Even though I’ve got all these responsibilities, I really like it. It’s my choice in what I do.”

And Vigil sees life just that way, as a series of choices not obstacles. His advice? “Don’t see things as obstacles. They’re just your challenges to beat. Once you beat the challenge, you pretty much learned a life lesson.”

Email: juliefowler3@gmail.com

Longmont resident and Alexander Dawson senior Marissa Shevins' photo of a Ugandan girl in an 'internally displaced persons' camp.

But the perspective this Longmont senior brought home from these faraway places is way beyond her years, too. Everywhere she goes, Shevins sees people who need help and it motivates her to figure out how she can impact their lives in the future.

At the moment, Shevins is getting ready to graduate from Alexander Dawson and plans to attend the University of Colorado, Boulder to pursue degrees in fine arts and journalism. Her goal is to use her writing and photography skills to publicize the stories of the needy around the world.

Actually, Shevins already has been hard at work to improve the lives of folks both locally and in Africa. In fact, she’s got more than 500 hours of community service under her belt.

During the past three summers, Shevins has traveled to Soroti, Uganda where her mom helped set up a health-care clinic. It was there in 2007, before her sophomore year in high school, that she embarked on her first big project. She thought she was going to work at a daycare center to help take care of kids whose parents were going to school.

A self portrait by Marissa Shevins.

“Instead of me working there, they said, ‘Actually, we don’t have that daycare yet. You’re going to start it.’ I was 15,” she said.

During the month she was there, the daycare grew from seven kids to 40. To date, she’s raised about $3,000 to help fund what is now an established school. During her last two visits to Uganda, Shevins also has helped with medical outreach and worked at a boarding school with other kids her age, some of whom were escaped sex slaves and child soldiers.

“They’re all my age, but so different from me,” says Shevins, who has a very down-to-earth way about her. “I can’t imagine.”

Because she sees how much work there is to do, Shevins has focused her volunteer efforts into four areas – homelessness, AIDS prevention, domestic and physical abuse, and preventing girls from dropping out of school.

She’s become well versed in awarding grant money, too. As the recipient of the 2008 Dottie Lamm Award, Shevins got to sit on a committee that helped do just that. She also served on the Boulder Community Foundation’s 15 Forever Youth Leader Program where she got to grant money to youth programs. And in 2009, she was named one of the Daily Camera Pacesetters.

Shevins’ high school career hasn’t been all community service. She’s done competitive soccer, horse shows, tennis, musicals. She’s also an avid photographer.

“I’ve done a lot of things,” she says. “But I think I’ve found what I like best.”

Sure, she admits, some of the situations she’s seen have been tragic and sad. But that just seems to motivate her more.

“I don’t tend to dwell,” she says. “It affects me. Yes. It motivates me to want to help more. Of course it’s terrible and awful. But it’s not a deterrent. It’s more like a motivation…See? That’s why you’re here.”
Email: juliefowler3@gmail.com

Longmont Mayor Bryan Baum presented six students with the Positive Impact Award for being the first team of Casa de la esperanza and the St. Vrain Valley MESA Program to compete in the state's championship robotics tournament. From left to right, Tania Gonzalez, Pedro Rascon, Santiago Arredondo, Nishtha Oberai, Baum and Esteban Gonzalez. Prerit Oberai is not pictured. Nissa LaPoint photo

Mayor Bryan Baum gave the six Niwot High School students the Positive Impact Award for their participation and for building two remote controlled mechanical robots.

The students were given the opportunity to compete through the Casa de la Esperanza and St. Vrain Valley MESA Program, after-school programs aimed toward advancing students’ math, science and engineering skills. In March, the first robotics team was assembled and the students prepared for the competition held at the Arapahoe Community College in Littleton.

“They have to learn to work together,” said program coordinator Carlota Loya Hernandez. “We’ve become like a family. Their self-confidence and esteem is incredible.”

Students Santiago Arredondo, Esteban Gonzalez, Nishtha Oberai, Prerit Oberai, Tania Gonzalez and Pedro Rascon were at the council meeting Tuesday to receive their awards.

“I learned how to make things work together,” said Esteban Gonzalez, 17.

The students demonstrated how the robots worked during the meeting.

“It takes a lot of energy and effort in the beginning,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez said the robotics team will be continued with another set of students next semester.

Shayla Tran, Delia Lynch, Jemma Kuster and Chris Bopp of Alpine Elementary School practice a spontaneous build for the Odyssey of the Mind competition. Lindsay J.C. Lack photo

There’s a “kelp-wanted” ad to answer. And a joke about seafood – no, not the one your first-grader tells. Instead, this joke is about reading a seafood list – “when I see food, I eat it.” There’s even a “sea food court” complete with a wacky “accused.”

It’s all part of the final preparations and practices underway for the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals by students on eight teams from St. Vrain Valley School District schools and three teams from Longmont Christian School. The 2010 world finals for OM (or OotM as many participants refer to it) will be held May 26 to May 29 at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich.

“Odyssey of the Mind gives very creative kids an outlet to use their talents,” said Alpine team B coach Jo Charlton. “It’s just amazing to see what these kids can create.”

Jarod Balentine, Samuel Narvaez,  Alex Valin and Nicholas Valen act out their Odyssey of the Mind skit during practice at Alpine Elementary School in Longmont. The skit was performed by Alpine’s A Team, one of two teams the school will send to the competition this year. Lindsay J.C. Lack photo

Creativity, problem-solving and teamwork are what OM is all about.

Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college. It was started in 1978 by technology professor C. Samuel Micklus at Rowan University in New Jersey. Since its inception, OM has grown to include teams of students from more than 30 U.S. states and several other countries.

The 2010 World Finals will be a global experience with teams from 25 countries, including China, Singapore, South Africa, The Netherlands, France, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Canada and the United Kingdom.

There are 23 teams from Colorado competing at the world finals. All of them advanced from regional competitions to place first or second at the state competition. Of those 23 teams, six come from St. Vrain Valley School District elementary schools: Black Rock, Burlington, Centennial, Carbon Valley Academy and two teams from Alpine Elementary. Sunset Middle School and Erie Middle School also have teams going to the world finals. And three teams will compete from Longmont Christian School.

Participants choose one of five competitive problems to solve. The problems vary greatly; some are technical, such as building structures with balsa wood and glue that can withstand weight or creating a vehicle that can perform certain tasks, while others are artistic or performance-oriented, such as portraying the discovery of two archaeological treasures.

Teams are judged on their skit and long-term problem solution, along with their “style” for costumes and props. They also must solve a “spontaneous” problem using an odd assortment of materials.

“Basically they are given a bunch of junk and have to make something happen or build something using those materials,” Charlton said. “They have to be very creative with their problem solving.”

Last week, Charlton’s team practiced working together to solve a spontaneous problem. She handed them a bag containing straws, string, coffee filters, Popsicle sticks and ping pong balls, with instructions to move the balls from point A to point B – all in eight minutes.

“They have to be able to work together,” Charlton said.

The Alpine Elementary teams both chose to solve a long-term problem called “food court,” in which the students must create and present a humorous performance about a food item that is accused of being unhealthy and must defend itself among its food peers. Adult coaches – Charlton and Jeremy White for Alpine team B, and Kris Koval and JP Valin for team A — are there to teach teamwork and supervise. However, all the creation – ideas, writing scripts, making costumes, building props – must be accomplished by the team members.

“The students do everything,” said Koval, whose team finished first in its division at state competition. “One of my team members even learned to sew from two other of my team members to make so he could make his costume. The kids are pretty amazing.”

Both Alpine teams began working on their long-term problem in October, and generally held team meetings once a week. At those meetings, team members would brainstorm ideas, work on their long-term project, do problem-solving activities, and occasionally take a play break outside.

“We find it works the ‘crazies’ out,” Koval said, smiling.

Any Alpine Elementary student can join an OM team, Koval said. In fact, the school had six teams that entered regional competition, she said. She credited Penny Ouellette, who first began the Odyssey of the Mind program at Alpine, with keeping interest high.

“She keeps track of all the paperwork for the teams, which frees the adult coaches to do all the fun activities with the kids,” Koval said.

And do the students enjoy their OM experience?

“It’s really cool and pretty fun,” said Chris Bopp. “I really like it.”

Email: kcglasscock@comcast.net