Virginia Beach school comes up big in global competition

VIRGINIA BEACH

Woodstock Elementary School in Virginia Beach won a first-place award in an international academic competition this past weekend.

Woodstock students won the Fine Arts competition known as “Triple Take Road Show” in the elementary level of the “global finals” of Destination ImagiNation in Knoxville, Tenn., according to Todd Perry, team co-manager. In the road show, Woodstock competed against 46 teams.

“We are the first elementary level team in the state of Virginia to ever place in the top three at globals,” Perry said in a written statement. “We are also the only team in the Tidewater region to ever place in the top three at the elementary, middle or secondary level.”

There were more than 1,200 teams and a crowd of 15,000, Perry said.

Destination ImagiNation is a worldwide, nonprofit organization that enables elementary, middle, high school and college students to express their creativity, demonstrate teamwork and display problem-solving skills.

Several public schools from Virginia Beach participated – Woodstock and Kemps Landing Magnet and Plaza Middle schools.

Woodstock’s team, “The Hairy Thinkers,” is the group of six fifth-graders who competed at the University of Tennessee. Students came up with their team name because many of them have long hair, according to fifth-grader Kevin Willis.

Participants were interviewed by the Beacon section of The Virginian-Pilot before they left on their trip.

“It’s kind of like the Olympics of brain creativity,” said Amy O’Briant, whose daughter, Zenny, is one of the team members and a third generation Woodstock Elementary student.

Zenny has been involved with Destination ImagiNation for the past three years.

“She loves it,” Amy O’Briant said.

And what’s not to love?

Destination ImagiNation members are the driving force behind the ideas – from start to finish – for the skits they create and showcase.

“They build all the props and sew all the costumes,” O’Briant said. “Everything in there belongs to them.”

Leslie Law, co-director of the Tidewater Destination ImagiNation Region, said the program helps children become independent thinkers and collaborators.

“They get to look at a problem from multiple perspectives and then creatively solve it in a way that meets the task of the challenge,” Law said. “They learn that mistakes and failures are not obstacles, but opportunities to improve.”

Eleven-year-old Hannah McGowan said it’s really fun to be on the team.

“Everyone fits in,” Hannah said. “We get to meet new people and get creative with our minds.”

“This is truly a one-size-fits-all program where anyone can join and find a way to contribute to a team,” said Barb Besal, also a co-director.

Of the seven team-challenge themes, The Hairy Thinkers chose the “Triple Take Road Show,” which required them to use three ways to tell the same story using methods of transportation to “move” their show between different audiences.

During the citywide competition held at the end of February, The Hairy Thinkers competed against 11 other teams and won first place. In March, they traveled to Charlottesville for the statewide competition and, again, won first place.

Now, after weeks of fundraising, they have the necessary funds to take them to the global competition.

“The children have worked extremely hard to get to this final competition where they will be judged with the best of the best throughout the world,” Law said.

David Schleck, the editor of the Beacon section of The Virginian-Pilot, contributed to this report.

Here are the Virginia Beach teams that went to Destination ImagiNation Global Finals.

Woodstock Elementary School “The Hairy Thinkers” Cayenne Perry

Kevin Willis

Zenny O’Briant

Hannah McGowan

Danny Reiss

Jenna Sockman

Team managers: Deb Chirtea, Todd Perry, Carolyn Pulley, Madison Perry

Kemps Landing Magnet School “The Killer Beavs”

Mathew Johnston

Tanner Grayson

Rebecca Haslcq

Channing Williams

Matt Marscheider

Austin Fullwood

Team manager: Robert Fullwood

Plaza Middle School “Contaminatingly Devilish Whispers”

Casey Nguyen

Allyson MacLeod

Jenna Robinson

Crystal Mulik

Elizabeth McArdle

Laura Lang

Team manager: Colleen Stephens