One Opportunity at a Time: It Was Never About Starting a Nonprofit

2020 Odyssey of the Mind & 2026 Odyssey of the Mind

People often ask me why I started Creative Innovators Project.

The truth is... I definitely did not set out to start a nonprofit. Honestly, I just wanted a place where my daughter could create, explore, and experience the world in a bigger way. A place where she could ask questions, make things, solve problems, and discover who she was becoming along the way.

In many ways, though, the story started much earlier.

As a child, I participated in Odyssey of the Mind myself. I didn't know it then, but those experiences planted a seed that would quietly stay with me for years.

Fast forward to becoming a mom.

Like so many parents, I was looking for ways to enrich my daughter's education. At the same time, I was living with fibromyalgia. My world had become much smaller than I had imagined, and I was trying to figure out what the next chapter of my own life would look like. I had gone back to school, searching for purpose and wondering what I was still capable of contributing.

When Brinley was in fourth grade, I wanted her to experience Odyssey of the Mind, but our school didn't have a team.

So I walked into the principal's office at Lake Pleasant Elementary and asked a simple question.

"Would you trust me to start one?"

February 2020 Lake Pleasant Odyssey of the Mind Program with then Principal Dustin Hamman (left) & Vice Principal Tonja Neve at Central Regional Odyssey of the Mind Tournament

I wasn't a coach.

Leadership was never about standing in front of the students. It was about stepping into the circle with them.

I wasn't an engineer.

I had never led an Odyssey of the Mind team.

I was simply a parent volunteer who believed our students deserved the opportunity.

Thankfully, he said yes.

Awards Ceremony AZ OM Central Regional Tournament

Looking back, that one conversation changed the course of my life.

That first season wasn't perfect.

We learned as we went.

We made mistakes.

We figured things out one problem at a time.

And I had a team to help.

Looking back now, I realize something else.

That pattern never really changed.

Every time we reached something we didn't know how to do, we learned because we had to.

Before there were trophies, grants, or a nonprofit, there were afternoons like this—students creating simply because they loved to create.

We didn't wait until we felt qualified.

We stepped into the opportunity in front of us, learned what we needed to learn, reflected on what worked, and kept moving forward.

Without realizing it, I was living the very process I now teach our students.

As I coached, I began noticing something I couldn't stop thinking about.

The students weren't just learning creative problem-solving.

They were changing.

The quiet students found their voices.

The hesitant students became willing to take risks.

Students who had always felt different started realizing that maybe thinking differently wasn't something to hide.

Maybe it was exactly what their team needed.

Once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it.

At the same time, I found myself diving into research on creativity, learning, neuroscience, psychology, trauma, and human development.

Not because I was trying to create a methodology.

I was trying to understand what I was witnessing.

Why did these students seem different after a season of creative problem-solving?

What was actually changing?

One question kept following me home.

Lake Pleasant Elementary Div 2 AZ OM State Champions Div 2 Problem “The Effective Detective”

What if the competition isn't the most important thing happening here?

What if the greatest outcome isn't the solution they build...

But the person they're becoming while they build it?

That question changed everything.

When Brinley finished eighth grade and headed to high school, we reached another crossroads.

If our students wanted to continue, there wasn't a place for them.

So once again...

We learned because we had to.

We started a nonprofit.

The nonprofit wasn't the goal. It simply made it possible to keep saying "yes" to more students.

Not because that had always been the dream.

Because we weren't ready for the journey to end.

As the organization grew, so did the questions.

Every season brought new experiences.

December 2024 Recruiting new members and introducing ourselves to the community at the Vistancia Mountain Vista Club

New challenges.

New opportunities to learn.

Every opportunity started with an empty room, a pile of supplies, and students ready to imagine what was possible.

The more I coached, the more I studied. The more I studied, the more I coached. Each informed the other, slowly shaping the philosophy and methodology that would eventually become the foundation of Creative Innovators Project.

Looking back, I can see that every step had a purpose.

Nothing was wasted.

Every challenge taught me something I would need later.

Irelyn reminded me that focus isn't something we can demand from children. When the environment is right, the challenge is meaningful, and they're free to pursue their interests, focus happens naturally.

Every obstacle prepared me for the next opportunity.

Every student became one of my greatest teachers.

Some students taught me resilience. Others taught me leadership. Elana reminded me that when children are given the freedom to follow their curiosity, creativity has a way of flourishing on its own.

Creative Innovators Project wasn't built from a master plan.

It grew because one opportunity led to another.

One lesson led to another.

One question led to another.

Feb 2026 Lake Pleasant Elementary STEAM night CIP Egg Drop

Today, our mission extends far beyond preparing students for a competition.

We're creating an environment where young people learn to think creatively, embrace challenges, solve meaningful problems, collaborate with people who think differently, and discover confidence in who they are becoming.

Because I've come to believe that the most meaningful thing we build isn't a solution.

It's the person solving it.

Today, I spend more time watching than coaching. Brinley now leads many of these conversations herself.

She didn't become a leader overnight.

She grew into it through years of opportunities, one responsibility at a time, with adults who believed she was capable long before she believed it herself.

That's the beautiful thing about community—our children aren't raised by one person alone. They're shaped by an entire village of people willing to see the best in them.

One of the greatest gifts of this journey has been watching the students I once coached become the leaders who now coach the next generation.

When I think back to that day in the principal's office, I'm incredibly grateful that someone was willing to trust a parent with an idea.

That opportunity changed my life.

Now, every week, we have the privilege of offering that same opportunity to young people—to trust them with meaningful challenges, to believe in them before they fully believe in themselves, and to watch them discover just how capable they really are.

And that, more than anything else, is why Creative Innovators Project exists.