Our Story

Starting in 3rd-grade, each of us (Cam, Cary, Lara, and Reagan--the four founders) joined an Odyssey of the Mind team led by our awesome 2nd-grade Pacific Elementary School teacher (shout out to Michelle Lautanen). Our teams competed for three years and had a blast collaborating in creative hands-on and spontaneous problem-solving activities. When our oldest founders entered sixth grade in 2021, we decided that we would become Odyssey Angels, an Odyssey of the Mind program that challenges individuals to use their creative problem-solving abilities to help a part of their community that is typically overlooked. For three years we were Odyssey Angels, with our final Odyssey Angels project being a mentorship program where we partnered with the Richstone Family Center to share the creative and collaborative skills we enjoyed in our Odyssey experience with the students in Richstone's Kids Club. These skills included: makerspace, healthy cooking, art, collaborative physical activity, and mindfulness.

​​Through our mentorship sessions with Richstone, we grew even more aware that youths in our wider community did not have the resources to access programs that had been (and continue to be) influential in our mental and physical health and development. Additionally, we wanted to continue to build our strong relationships with the Richstone students, cementing those mutually positive relationships. So, in 2024, we decided to continue our mentorship program with Richstone and also to expand our reach by partnering with Title 1 schools in our wider community. In doing this, we created the Mindful Mentorship Foundation to bring the programs that have so positively influenced and empowered us to underserved communities in the South Bay.