DI team goes global; needs $10,000 fast BY JAMES JACENICH • STAFF WRITER
MONTEREY - The Highland Elementary School Destination ImagiNation team took third place at state competition in Charlottesville last weekend and is headed to Knoxville, Tenn. for global competition May 23. To attend, though, this group will have another big challenge: Raising $10,000 in about five weeks.
"We are going to have a sub sale," said team coach Sarah Ervin. The sub sale is Friday, April 20 - call HES to order by 4 pm. Thursday.
 | | The Highland Elementary School Destination Imagination team presented their first-place card structure and skit to the school board earlier this month after winning first place at regional competition in Roanoke. The team tied for third place at the state level April 14 and are headed to Global competition in Knoxville, Tenn. The card structure held 126 pounds at state competition. Pictured (l-r) are Dale Ervin, Katrina Roberson, Kenneth Sullivan, Jeremy Johnsen, Josh Brown and Brittney Folks. (Recorder photo by James Jacenich)
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"Then we are going to have a Domino's Pizza card sale. We'll have a card that you can buy two for the price of one, up to 20 times," she said Tuesday. "We're working on some other things, but we only started on this yesterday."
Mitchell Chevrolet in Marlinton, W.Va. has donated a van for the team to travel.
Highland's team of fourth and fifth graders went up against seven other teams of their same age and grade in state competition.
The first-place team, from Shady Grove Elementary School in Henrico County, built a structure that held 366 pounds. The second place team, from Old Donation Center, Virginia Beach, had a structure holding 166 pounds - without glue.
At the college level, the team from James Madison University built a structure that held more than 500 pounds, but they had the advantage of knowing physics, said fourth-grader Dale Ervin.
Highland's card structure held more this time - 126 pounds - up from 115 pounds at regional competition in Roanoke, and that was good enough to tie for third place.
The team competed in its main event at 10 a.m. and had to wait until 6 p.m. to find out how they finished. "I thought we weren't going to win, but we did," said fourth-grader Jeremy Johnsen.
After lunch, the team competed in an instant challenge, placing third.
Fifth-grader Katrina Roberson, who had missed regional competition due to a family engagement, said, "I was crying for half an hour for happiness. Competition was really hard and most teams don't get to go to globals."
"I thought it was really good," added fifth-grader Brittany Folks.
"They did well consistently throughout the whole thing - the main event, their two side trips, and the instant challenge," said Coach Ervin.
Fifth-grader Kenneth Sullivan said, "Everyone got higher scores than us, but we did well in instant challenge. I thought we would at least get second, but we did well in our skit … We need to raise $10,000 to go to globals."
The team is heading back to the drawing board, making improvements to compete even better at globals, said Ervin. "They redid scenery and costumes for state competition because they wanted them a little flashier; the scenery was improved to make it neater. They were being judged on quality of workmanship, effort and creativity," she said. "They'll rebuild their structure for globals … They saw a whole lot of different structures so they have a different idea of what it should be like."
Ervin said this team was determined to go to globals. "They decided they were going to Knoxville when they came back from regionals," said Ervin. "Right now the big thing is raising the money."
DI global competition is five days in Knoxville at the University of Tennessee. In addition to showing what they can do, participants will have an opportunity to meet students from all over the United States. The team departs for global competition on May 23.
Community support was strong for the last team from Highland to go to Globals, said Ervin. "We are hoping the community will turn out again to send our kids to globals," she said.
A total of 45 teams representing Virginia will go to Knoxville.
DI is an educational problem solving, improvisation, and structural engineering competition. Those who would like to donate toward the Highland team's expenses should call HES at 468-2181 for more information about upcoming fund-raising events and how to donate.
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