Richmond Elementary School and Camels Hump Middle School held their annual National Geographic GeoBees the last week of January, 2020. In hotly contested races, Maya Guilmette won at RES, and Elise Cournoyer (last year's champion at RES) was the CHMS winner. Runners up at RES were Myah Gingras (second place) and Hudson Brown (third place). At CHMS, where students have participated in GeoBee practice sessions since early December, Jack Rice took silver, and Zeb Marciel brought home the bronze. The National Geographic GeoBee is an annual competition designed to inspire and reward students' curiosity about the world. The winners have taken a qualifying test to become one of 100 state qualifiers to head to the Vermont state championship, which will be held on March 27.
CHMS Geobee winner Elise Cournoyer. Left, RES Principal Jeremy Rector, Hudson Brown, Maya Guilmette, Myah Gingras, Teacher Portia Senning. every degree it takes that many more years to obtain that level. Besides the training time in class, the actual black belt testing is six to seven hours long regardless of the age of the student. During this testing students must perform nine to fifteen patterns, do three different board breaks, demonstrate self defense with and without weapons, sparring, prepare a personal demonstration, write an essay, and many other skills.