Valrico team scrambles for funds to compete in "Odyssey"

A team of seventh-grade students from the Campo Family YMCA in Valrico is scurrying to raise $5,000 so they can compete in a national competition that challenges youngsters to use creativity to solve problems.

The nonprofit national Odyssey of the Mind program will bring together teams that spend several months preparing skits, sets, props and costumes without the help of adults. The world compeition will be May 27 too 30 at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.

The Campo team is kicking off a series of fundraisers to underwrite the cost of the trip with a "climb-a-thon" Saturday at the Y, 3414 Culbreath Road, Valrico.

Students will collect pledges from family members and friends based on how many feet they expect to climb on a rock wall from 5 to 7 p.m. that day. Each wall in the rock room is about 25 feet high, and students can climb a maximum of 250 feet during the fundraiser.

The team hold a second fundraiser 8 a.m. to noon May 9, when students will detail cars and host a yard and bake sale at St. Andrew's United Methodist Church, 3315 Bryan Road, Brandon.

The team - Jessica Alzamora, Sydney Luzier, Larissa Randall, Alex Geer, Corey Geer, Victoria Harris and coaches Ray Alzamora and Ellen Randall - qualified for the national competition after winning second place at the state contest at the University of Central Florida in April.

They first captured top honors at the regional competition in February with a skit recounting one of the labors of Heracles in their project "The Lost Labor of Heracles." The students created the 13th lost labor of Heracles that's been forgotten in history.

The team was one of two sponsored by the Campo YMCA. The second team - coached by Katie and Lindsay Ferguson with members Sarah Alzamora, Madison Cervi, Maddie Edgy, Shelbi Currey and Spencer Renne - earned fourth place in the regional competition.

Also winning top honors at the state competition was Progress Village Middle Magnet School for the Arts, which placed third in the Earth Trek Division II competition.