At this year’s Destination Imagination Global Finals, Old Rochester Regional High School will be represented yet again. The tournament is to be held at the University of Tennessee from May 25-28, during which the ORR team will compete against teams from 38 different countries.
Destination Imagination (DI) is a nonprofit organization that aims to encourage creativity from kindergarten all the way up to university through collaborative problem solving in the subjects of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), the fine arts, and community service.
This year’s team is made up of six seniors: Rikard Bodin, Sara Lafrance, William Lynch, Madeline Meyer, Drew Robert and Kyle Rood, with Mrs. Tina Rood as their team manager.
Upon entering, teams select one of six challenges and then compete against other teams in tournaments – first regionals, then states, then globals.
The challenge taken on by Old Rochester’s team of seniors was the Fine Arts challenge. In this challenge, participating teams had to pick a time period before 1990 and enact a scene of their creation with three possible suspects in a whodunit scenario. The entire script had to be performed with traverse staging with the audience seated completely around the stage. This added to the difficulty, as all props and acting had to be visible from every side.
The senior team selected the time period of a 1930s county fair to perform their eight-minute script with a $150 budget.
The team was also instructed to include a “TechniClue,” which needed to use a scientific, technical, engineering, or mathematical method to help solve the mystery. They chose to incorporate an intricate system of motors: a piece of wood with nails in it was placed into the corner of their platform, which pressed buttons that set off a series of motors that ultimately wound up a string and revealed a trap door.
On top of the TechniClue, the team included two “Team Choice Elements,” which are basically something special the team wants to highlight about their performance. The team chose to highlight the handmade costumes created by Sara Lafrance, and a sign they created to hang 10 feet in the air.
The team received the Da Vinci Award, which is awarded to the team that “most clearly demonstrate[s] the spirit of adventurous risk in their solutions – those who most creatively traveled to reach truly new and unique destinations.”
On top of the team award, Lafrance received the Barbara Mann Award. Barbara Mann was the woman who brought Destination Imagination to Massachusetts, and her award is given to an individual who carries the same philosophies and embodies the ideals of DI. The award was open to seniors who applied, and Lafrance won it at the state level. Lafrance, who has been doing DI for 11 years, is very involved in the program and even managed a team of third graders this year.
Lafrance explained why Destination Imagination is so important to her.
“I really think that I would be a completely different person if I hadn’t done DI,” said Lafrance. “As a kid, in classrooms I would get yelled at because I couldn’t sit still and I couldn’t focus, but I was always very creative. But then when I went to DI, I was free to do whatever I wanted, and I learned things I couldn’t learn in school.”
Rikard Bodin explained why Destination Imagination is a unique experience.
“Everyone in school is always talking about thinking on your own, but it never really works like that,” said Bodin. “You have notes and you have guide reading and they tell you how to think, no matter what teacher, no matter what class, people are telling you how to think and interpret stuff.” He continued, “DI is the only thing I’ve ever done that they throw you into it without telling you anything. It’s all about how you interpret the challenge, how you want to solve the challenge, and how to do it exactly the way you want to.”
There is also a team of freshmen and sophomores heading to DI, comprised of Maggie Farrell, Kelsea Kidney, Ben Lafrance, Pat O’Neil, and Brett Rood. They’ve got at least two years ahead of them for the High School Division, and the community looks forward to more great things from the rising team.
Getting to Globals isn’t easy, and it has taken months upon months of work for the Old Rochester team to get where they are. Nor is it cheap. Now, both teams are requesting the support of the community to help them on their way to Tennessee. The teams have set up an account with YouCaring in order to help with the funding of their big trip to Global Finals.
If you wish to donate, please visit YouCaring.com and search “ORR.”
By Sienna Wurl