Two Teams To Represent Granby In Destination ImagiNation Competition

Your challenge will be, if you choose to accept it; “to design and build a structure made only of aluminum foil, wood and glue.  Then you must test how much weight the structure will hold, and as a team, present a story about a character that is “foiled” (wasn’t successful) by the project.”

This is just an example of one of the challenges that Granby area students may face on March 26^th in an upcoming tournament by Destination ImagiNation in New London CT. 

Destination ImagiNation was founded in 1999 with the purpose of introducing youth to creativity, teamwork and problem solving.  The program has reached 100,000 students in the United States and more than 30 other countries. They provide challenges for children as young as five years old all the way up to college students.  

Thanks to the Granby Education Foundation, this year there are two Kelly Lane Intermediate School teams participating.   One team, The Crush Monkeys is made up of fifth and sixth graders, and will compete at the Middle School level. Pam Pestretto will be the team's manager.  The other team, The Blue Marshmallows is made up of third, fourth & fifth graders.  The Blue Marshmallows, managed by Kim McCord, will compete in the Elementary category.

What makes this program so unique is that the teams have no interference from the adults.  It is basically run by the students. 

“Destination ImagiNation is all about fun, team-work and creativity.  As team manager, my job is to facilitate the team's sessions, try to keep them on task, and sometimes act as referee if disputes should arise, “ McCord said.

The only time an adult can help the team is if they need access to a resource that only they can provide, like a ride to the library or store to complete their project. 

“If they run into problems, they have to find the solutions on their own, the kids own their challenge, and learn so much during the journey,” McCord pointed out.

“We do skits and instant challenges, once we built a bridge for Santa Claus to get across, but it collapsed, we learned that we had to make it more sturdy”  Shannon McCord shared.

The tournament is comprised of two elements:  an instant challenge and a central challenge.  Each week they have practice sessions where they complete random instant challenges and also prepare for the central challenge.  The central challenge was chosen from six options by the teams in December.

The Blue Marshmallows are currently researching six different countries for the upcoming tournament.   Not only is the team learning about different cultures, they are also gaining a valuable lesson in delegation and cooperation. 

“I've definitely seen growth in the team. They work very well together and are using each other’s strengths to come up with solutions to each of their tasks," Pestretto said.  "They are learning a lot about how to work with others that have different ideas then themselves and being very creative in their solutions.”

“It really boosts my creativity and helps me to learn how to work with my teammates, it’s really fun and we do a lot of creative projects," Blue Marshmallows team member Becca McCord said.

Good Luck to The Blue Marshmallows and The Crush Monkeys as they compete at the statewide tournament on March 26^th.  And teams, please let me know if you need a mascot, I think I would make a stunning blue marshmallow.