Letter to the Editor: DI teams winners, not stumblers

Dear Editor:
I am disappointed in your headline. Your headline about the Destination Imagination teams diminishes their incredible accomplishment. None of those teams stumbled. In fact, they have accomplished things and learned life lessons that many adults still need to learn.
Let me put this in perspective for you. The three teams that went to DI Globals raised almost $30,000 in four short weeks. They washed dishes, held dessert auctions, served dinners, picked up trash, ran concession stands, sold flowers, made presentations, etc. They did all of this while keeping up with their homework, performing Marimba concerts, continuing sports and 4-H commitments.
I say hats off to the kids and their parents for making all of it happen.
In order for our teams to qualify for Globals, they had to place at our regional tournament, then at the Colorado state tournament, which was over 400 teams. At Globals, there were more than 1,250 teams from 14 countries. The attendance filled the University of Tennessee’s Thompson-Bolin Arena 10,000 strong.
All of our teams had a strong showing. The judging gets stricter with each level, the competition gets stronger at each level.
I cannot speak to the other teams’ scores, but I can tell you that the Think-a-Dinks hit a home run. They were 11th in their division! They had a computer glitch, but handled it so smoothly the judges weren’t sure if it was truly a glitch or part of the skit. That shows that these kids kept calm and used teamwork to outscore almost 50 other teams.
There was no stumbling. All three teams have run a full marathon since starting their DI projects last fall, and they finished strong at DI Globals.
I’m proud to be a DI coach!
Margie Joy
Meeker