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Effort puts Valrico team in national spotlight

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By D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE

dlwhite@tampatrib.com

Published: May 6, 2009

VALRICO - 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 brings together teams that spend several months preparing skits, sets, props and costumes without the help of adults. The world competition takes place May 27 to 30 at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.

The Campo team is hosting a series of fundraisers to underwrite the cost of the trip, including an event from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, when students will detail cars and host a yard and bake sale at St. Andrew's United Methodist Church at 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 their skit recounting one of the labors of Heracles in their project "The Lost Labor of Heracles," in which they 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.

Other local teams in the state competition were from Symmes Elementary, Mulrennan Middle, Buckhorn Elementary and Bloomingdale High.

Reporter D'Ann Lawrence White can be reached at (813) 657-4524.

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