The Camden Central School District’s Odyssey of the Mind teams made a splashy debut in a new regional on Saturday, March 7th. After years heading eastward to the Capital District, entries from Camden Middle School and Camden High School took part in the Region 11 tournament held at Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES for the first time.
Odyssey of the Mind is a global scholastic problem-solving competition where students are challenged to use their creativity and critical thinking skills to solve a largely open-ended problem in an original manner. Students compete in a selected long-term problem, where they prepare and create their solution throughout the school year. The long term problem typically involves a theatrical element, a mechanical element, or both. There is also a short-term spontaneous problem that is not known until they walk into the competition area.
The entry from Camden High School placed second among teams completing Problem III, and will advance to participate in the New York State Championships on March 21st, 2026 at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse. The problem, entitled “Classics… The Epic Quest”, invites participants to create and act out an epic poem similar to those found in Ancient Greece. Along the way, the characters must encounter an original beast, must rescue someone, and must overcome some kind of significant challenge. In the team’s solution, the original objective is for the characters to find their parents, but instead they find themselves on a powerful journey as they overcome the challenges presented by the five stages of grief, and find out their goal wasn't what it seemed.
The Camden High School team advancing to states consists of seniors Alexis Albrecht, Abigail Arnold, Ben Gallagher, and Samantha MacMurray, and sophomores Phinean Callahan and Abigail Conover. Arnold, Albrecht, Conover, and Gallagher all returned from the 2025 team that placed twelfth at last year’s state championships. The Blue Devils are coached by Jessica Harney and Melanie Callahan.
As an added bonus, Albrecht was the winner of this year’s Region 11 Pin Design contest. The region gave a pin bearing Albrecht’s design, depicting the organization’s mascot OMer, to each student.
"The raccoon is a symbol of curiosity and exploration, a large part of Odyssey of the Mind,” she said in her design overview to the contest judges. “Raccoons are also lovingly known as "trash pandas", relating to OMer's resourcefulness when using "trash" items."
The entry from Camden Middle School undertook Problem 5, entitled Taller Tales of John Jivery, and placed fourth. This problem charged participants with creating a humorous performance about an original tall tale, including a team-created hero, a surprise for the audience, a creative explanation of how something began or came to be, and visual weather effects to represent a range of emotions. The story focuses on a Dragon King who loses his prized Doritos at sea and washes ashore. The team turned in a very competitive long-term problem score of 188.69. They hope to improve their short-term problem score with an eye toward making the 2027 State Finals with a group that is entirely eligible to return next year. The CMS entry included seventh grade students Rachyl Bray, Olivia Libby, and Annabelle Mikitin, sixth grade students Kyle Smith and Salvatore Maggio, and fifth graders Titus Forward and Konner Seidsma. The CMS Blue Devils are coached by Marlee Christmas-Lyon and Karleen Gilsenan. 
