Trevor's Destination Imagination @ State Finals

Back in March, Trevor's team competed in the regional D.I. competition. The Super Smart Alakazoo Airheads of Doom placed first in their division and got the chance to move on to State Finals in San Jose! The team rose early Saturday morning of April 10th and made the 2 1/2 hour trip to the next phase of their D.I. adventure.

Their performance is only 7 minutes long. Within that 7 minutes they 1. perform a skit and 2. show a structure that bears weight. The skit must contain several elements and they get points for each element they include and extra points for the level of creativity they show. The structure was built beforehand. It could only be made out of newspaper and glue. They get points for the creativity of their structure and how heavy it is in relation to the amount of weight it holds. (There are actually quite a few more elements and restrictions, but it's really too much to explain. Just know that the kids had to be incredibly imaginative in every aspect of this competition - hence the name Destination IMAGINATION.)

Here they are just before they go on.

Here are several shots of the different elements of their skit:

Emma & Jacob acting as newscasters sitting at their "desk" painted and designed by the kids.

Elder acting as a news reporter interviewing Jacob (now posing as a baker that lost his baking partner into a mixing bowl of dough). Jacob's partner seems to have turned into a giant gingerbread cookie! Gingerbread man cardboard cutout was also made entirely by the kids and painted by our own Trevor!

Elder, the news reporter with his microphone made of newspaper, interviewing Caleb acting as an old man hosting a gathering of the largest number of people together in their underwear (note the newspaper chonies the kids are all "wearing").

Everyone was "wearing" their undies - except Trevor, who had the most classic line of the skit when he said, "Not me! I'm goin' commando!!"

Trevor and Jacob E. were primarily in charge of stacking the weights onto the structure throughout the duration of the skit. Jeremy got to act as a tool - guiding the weights and spotting the kids so they didn't drop anything on their toes!

You can see the rest of the team come to help out with the weights as soon as the skit was finished. That structure maxed out at 600 POUNDS!! Watch the video below and listen for the crunch when it breaks.

Here they are after their performance. Relieved, blowing off some steam from all that pressure, and proud of their hard work. You can see their newspaper structure inside the wooden surround. It's the gray cylinder sitting underneath all that weight. We could hardly believe it held that much weight!

The kids were happy with their performance and so were the parents and coaches. We went out for a short celebration before the awards ceremony at 6:30 that night.


The awards ceremony was packed! That gym was filled to the brim with creative kids, parents, and coaches.

Here's our team waiting for the announcement in our division.

They didn't get 3rd. We held our breaths. They didn't get 2nd. We were turning blue with anticipation. Then they announced, "1st place goes to THE SUPER SMART ALAKAZOO AIRHEADS OF DOOM!"

VICTORY!!

Proud papa with his boy.

These kids were beyond excited to win this award and TROPHY. They knew that if they won these State Finals they'd be able to go to the Global Finals.

The kids learned a valuable life lesson on this day. They learned that will a lot of hard work, team work, and the joy of using their imaginations, they can reach their dreams. They can succeed! April 10th, 2010 will be a day that lives forever in the memory of these kids.



We were all surprised at how well they did at State Finals. Not in any of our wildest dreams did we think they'd get first place with a chance to go to Globals. All of the adults in our party squeeled with delight when they won, but sat down in shock as we realized what this would mean. $$. It meant $$. How in the world would we be able to get these kids to the next phase of this competition? None of us had been planning on sending kids and/or spouses to Tennessee in a month. This news meant fundraisers. Big. Time. FUNDRAISERS.

Here is our shameless plug to ask for your donations:

Please click the HERE or the picture below if you would like to support our fundraising efforts to get these kids to Global Finals in Tennessee May 25-29, 2010.
We need all the help we can get!! Your donation is tax deductible. Please use the Tax Code on the D.I. webpage for your tax purposes.

Thank you for your support!