[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 100 (Monday, July 22, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S7159]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          CONGRATULATIONS ODYSSEY OF THE MIND FROM YARDLEY, PA

 Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize the 
accomplishments of a very bright and focused group of students: the 
William Penn Middle School Odyssey of the Mind Team from Yardley, PA. 
This team of seven children has returned from competition boasting 
first place out of nearly 700 teams from across the country and around 
the world. Their perfect score reflects their top performance in all 
categories of competition, and their exhibition of exceptional 
creativity has earned them the Ranatra Fusca Award for which the team's 
name will be placed on a trophy at the Smithsonian Institute.
  Odyssey of the Mind is a creative problem-solving program for 
children of all ages, from kindergarten through college. Through 
regional, State, country, and international competition, participant 
groups spend the better part of a year working on a solution to one of 
five problems as devised by the program. Contestants compete with 
students of similar age and must meet a number of criteria which 
include: limiting expenses to a strict budget, building mechanical 
creations to accomplish specific tasks, writing and staging an original 
performance, and earning points from the judges based on their solution 
to the problem they have chosen, style in solving the problem, and 
their ability to spontaneously answer a problem on the day of 
competition.
  Recycling trash and other discarded materials to build a set and 
costumes for their performance and to engineer a vaccuuming contraption 
and a water quality enhancer, the Yardley team focused on the issue of 
environmental preservation. With a theme based on ``The Wizard of Oz,'' 
the characters of the team's sketch worked on cleaning up an imaginary 
environment found under a child's bed. The vision of Katie Barberides, 
Colleen Considine, Andrew Ettenger, Jamie Hale, Greg Plumb, Brianna 
Pollock, and Evan Verdini was awarded a perfect score from the judges 
on the three scored fronts. These seven critical thinkers clinched 
first place at the World Finals in their division, participants under 
15 years of age.
  I invite my Senate colleagues to join me in congratulating these 
young intellectuals on their enthusiasm for creative learning and the 
hard work they put into this problem-solving program. They represent 
the American spirit of ingenuity and should be very proud of their 
individual and team accomplishments. I wish them the best of luck in 
their future endeavors, and I hope they continue to enjoy learning 
skills through other innovative opportunities.

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