By Angel Perkins Editor
Triton Jr.-Sr. High School’s Destination ImagiNation team has a new destination in mind, this one, Knoxville, Tenn. The team was one of two from Triton that won placements in the state competition which took place April 12 in Noblesville, Ind. Destination ImagiNation is a program recognized worldwide, for students of all ages, that builds members’ creativity, teamwork and problem solving skills.
Teams of five to seven students are given challenges in one of five categories: technical/mechanical, theater arts/science, theater arts/fine arts, theater arts/improvisation or technical/architectural design. Each challenge requires the students to use whatever resources they have to put together what is expected of them in a certain amount of time.

Triton’s “DI've Got a Secret” team was one of six that competed and took third place at state and their “Hit or Myth” team took second. All first and second place winners were sent to the global finals. But the hard part isn’t the challenge directive that they may face next, it is the raising money to get there. As a non-profit,  extra-curricular activity (that does not bring money back into the corporation), the team is not sponsored by the school to attend, and relies on donations of money and materials to keep going.
“The kids are absolutely thrilled to get the chance to represent Triton in another competition,” explained D.I. team leader and Triton Elementary School educator Cathy Strycker. “It costs $590 (per person) for housing, food, programing, etc. to stay there from Tuesday night through Sunday morning.” The D.I. Global Finals begin May 20 (for registration and prop delivery). There are many activities for the students to experience including an opening ceremony May 21 along with lots of competitions in the days to follow. May 25, there is a closing ceremony where winners are announced and a party to celebrate follows. Strycker said that they anticipate more than 900 teams competing from all over the U.S. and several other countries. “Typically there are 100 or so teams within each challenge,” she said. “It can be smaller if there was less interest by teams in some of the challenges, but ours, ‘Hit or Myth’ is a very widely selected area.”
Her D.I. crew, which consists of Logan Chapman, Jessica Creech, Chris Strycker, Jen Strycker, Nicole Snyder, Jamie Yungandreas and Zach Wampler is the team that won a spot for the worldwide challenge. The other Triton team led by Lisa Eiser is a D.I. Extreme team and shares a member, with Tom Eiser, Tommy Devros, Chrissi Schaetzle, Jen Strycker, and Jamie Yungandeas.
In the past, one of the more popular fundraising ideas the group has had included “flamingo flocking” where dozens of plastic, pink, flamingos were parked in people’s yards after a donation was made but last year they received only a handful of willing participants. This year, one fundraiser for the program involves eating.
“Tim Harman (owner) at Subway/Bourbon Street Pizza has generously offered 20 percent of both day’s sales to be given to our group on May 12 and 13,” Strycker said. But the challenge is for those wishing to donate in that manner—to remember the coupon which must be presented at the time of purchase—which they can get from any D.I. member.
Another fundraising activity the group is involved in is selling concessions at home baseball games, and they hope to have a bake sale at Wal-Mart in the near future. “We also do Market Day and it has given us a nice little pot to start with, but we are still in need of quite a bit more to cover the basics,” Strycker said. “If we could get lucky enough to cover room and board, we hope to be able to get shirts for the kids with a special logo to show we are a team. In the past certain donation levels paid for businesses to be listed on our shirts too.”
While it may seem like D.I. is all fun and games, there are learning elements involved that focus on self-confidence, cooperation, ethnic diversity and problem solving skills as well as thinking quick on ones feet. “This is a great program that keeps the kids very busy in practice, instant challenges and the actual competition, but there is time for meeting others from different states and countries,” Strycker added. For more information about the program visit the Web site at www.idodi.org. To help the local team contact the school or visit a fundraiser.