First Destination Imagination Team Competes in Regional Tournament

Team members, left to right: William Gooley, Michael Curran, Ryan Preskenis, Kerstin Peterleitner, Ashley Ruggieri, Shayne Brenner, Maria Berube, Adelle Paquette. (Kevin Shu, the ninth team member, did not attend the closing ceremony.)

By Louise Garone

This year, the Soaring Eagles, St. Mary's first Destination Imagination team, participated in the Destination Imagination Massachusetts District 2 Regional Tournament on March 6 at Oxford Senior High School. The Team's accomplishments were appraised in facing an instant challenge and in the performance of their "Surprise Trip" play. Judges, audience and team members agreed the Soaring Eagles had achieved their goal.

Destination Imagination (DI) is a non-profit organization that sponsors creative problem-solving programs for young people. The organization promotes teamwork and the development of individual talents by asking a team to solve the challenge of its choice from a list of alternatives and then participate in a tournament at which teams' solutions are demonstrated and evaluated by a panel of judges. Ideally, these tournaments are a celebration of all teams' accomplishments. St. Mary's School, Shrewsbury, fielded teams in the past for Odyssey of the Mind Challenges, but the Soaring Eagles is its first DI team. See http://www.maom.org/ for additional background information.

Next year there will be at least one Rising Stars DI Team at St. Mary's managed by John Ruggieri. Louise Garone will serve as the assistant manager (after December 2004) and other parents are encouraged to "join up" as team managers. .