Odyssey of the Mind tournament at Johnstown CSD

JOHNSTOWN, N.Y. (NEWS10)- The Odyssey of the Mind (OOTM) tournament is returning to the Capital Region after a two-year hiatus. Johnstown Junior-Senior High School will be hosting the tournament on Saturday, Mar. 12.

The day-long event will feature 32 teams from seven Capital Region (Region 4) school districts. The Greater Johnstown School District will have 12 teams representing the district.

The public will not be allowed to attend the event and students are allowed to only have three guests. However, the district's coordinator, Kristin Meashaw, said 800 are still expected to attend which is a little less than half of what the district planned on hosting two years ago.

“We were expecting to host 65 teams and about 2,000 people at the regional competition in 2020,” Meashaw said. “We had a DJ booked, inflatable bounce houses lined up, events for the kids to attend throughout the day, and a big awards ceremony planned. We’re excited to finally be coming back to a sense of normalcy, but we’ve still had to scale back this year’s event from what we had originally planned for 2020."

Meashaw, an academic intervention services teacher at Warren Street Elementary, started the district's OOTM program in 2014. The program was officially launched in 2015-2016. Six elementary teams, five from middle school, and one high school team will be representing the district at this year's OOTM tournament.

“Students are building skills in problem-solving, budgeting, time management, public speaking, and learning how to work together as a team to accomplish a goal, Meashaw said. "All skills that will help them as an adult."

Teams that win at Saturday's tournament will go on to the state competition at the New York State Fairgrounds. That tournament will take place at the end of March. The awards ceremony for Saturday's tournament at Johnstown will be held virtually at 7:30 p.m.