Two deserving seniors – Sienna Forbes and Rylee Hoornbeck – are the 2025 recipients of the Elaine Greco Creative Spirit Award.

“We congratulate Sienna Forbes and Rylee Hoornbeck as winners of the 2025 Elaine Greco Creative Spirit Awards,” said Lori Stapleton, coordinator of the district’s Odyssey of the Mind program. “I wish them the best for a bright and successful future!”

 

 

The Pine Bush Odyssey of the Mind program continues to proudly honor one of our own, Phyllis Elaine Greco, who passed away on June 4, 2021 after a courageous battle with cancer. Elaine was a Pine Bush art teacher for 30 years, and also coached Pine Bush Odyssey of the Mind teams at both Pakanasink Elementary School and Circleville Middle School.

This $250 competitive scholarship is designed to honor the spirit in which Pine Bush’s creative problem-solving teams are encouraged to compete. It has been awarded to graduating seniors who have participated in the Pine Bush Odyssey of the Mind program for a minimum of five years. Qualified candidates submitted an application and essay about their experience with the program to the scholarship committee, as well as letters of reference from their past coaches.

Ms. Greco’s vision of the program was one where creatively-talented students could learn the life skills afforded to athletic teams. As one of our most successful coaches, she always loved winning, but only if the path to excellence was paved with honesty and hard work in the spirit of competition. She believed that every coaching decision needed to be made with an eye on what the students would learn from their choices. She used her wide array of talent and skills in the art world to teach her team members how to make beautiful sets, props, and costumes out of the most ordinary of materials.

Congratulations to both Sienna and Rylee for honorably and successfully representing Pine Bush at Odyssey of the Mind for so many years.