Schultz Elementary School’s fifth-grade Destination Imagination team will travel to a state competition this month after winning first place at the regional level.
The seven students, Michael Snavely, Connor Dutton, Grace Bahr, Elhum Bouziri, Megan Keller, Alec Ida and Reilly Bryant, recently competed in the DI regional competition and got first place in the competition’s service learning challenge.
According to DI, the service learning challenge required students to identify a need in the community and carry out a project to address that need and then create a live presentation of a fable related to the project.
Snavely said the group’s live presentation is basically a skit and was written entirely by them. Snavely said the students chose to do a walk-a-thon to raise money for a Dempsey Middle School student, Kylie Linville, who was struck by a car on her way to school earlier this year. He said part of the money would also be donated to Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
Linville spent a couple months at the hospital after suffering fractures to both legs, but has since returned to school.
“We picked Kylie because we have a lot of older siblings who know her personally,” Snavely said.
The students asked people to donate money and walked five miles at Mingo Park for the event.
Travis Woodworth, the principal at Schultz Elementary, reports the students raised over $1,000.
After winning the regional competition, the students are refining every detail of their skit for the state competition. Bouziri said the team knows that the stiffest competition is still ahead.
“As we progress over levels the nervousness is more and more,” Bouziri said. “There are a lot of people competing against us and we have to be the best we can be.”
Bryant added that most of the team has been working together for a number of years. The team has an obvious rapport and rhythm, swapping ideas and jokes back and forth with ease. They brought Keller into the mix after a teammate had to drop out.
“It was a bit hard to have a new teammate at first but it was fun to learn the ropes with her,” Bryant said.
Dutton echoed that statement and said Keller brings a variety of skills that the team was previously lacking.
The DI State Tournament will be April 8 at Mount Vernon High School.
