[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 6]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 8940]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      HONORING THE HARFORD DAY SCHOOL DESTINATION IMAGINATION TEAM

                                 ______
                                 

                     HON. C.A. DUTCH RUPPERSBERGER

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 13, 2008

  Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. Madam Speaker, I rise before you today to honor 
Harford Day School's Destination ImagiNation, DI, team, who recently 
won first place in the ``Chorific Improv'' competition at the statewide 
Destination ImagiNation competition and is headed to the national 
finals this month in Tennessee.
  Destination ImagiNation is a place where kids take what they know and 
what they excel at and learn to apply it to solve challenges, working 
cooperatively with a team and pushing the limits of imagination. 
Destination ImagiNation is a community-based, school-friendly program 
that builds the participants' creativity, problem-solving, and teamwork 
in enjoyable and meaningful ways. Teams of five to seven members work 
together to apply critical thinking and their particular talents to 
solve a Team Challenge. A Destination ImagiaNation Team Challenge is a 
challenge that is solved over a period of 8 weeks. Each Team Challenge 
is designed to be open-ended and solvable in many ways and on many 
levels.
  The Harford Day School DI team participated in the Chorific Improv 
Problem this year. The criteria for the Team Challenge focused on 
improvisational acting, story development, theater arts, team work, and 
sound design. Their challenge was to create a 6-minute improvisational 
skit about an ordinary, randomly selected chore in just 30 minutes at 
the Tournament. In addition, they had to integrate a randomly selected 
famous person into their skit.
  The Team's chore was to brush the dog. They created a cardboard dog 
on a leash, and their setting was a train on which they were riding to 
a dog show. In their skit, they had to overcome two randomly selected 
obstacles, which in their case meant the only brush they had was their 
mother's brush, and the bristles were falling out. Erasmus Darwin was 
the famous person the Team needed to incorporate into their skit. As he 
was a poet and a scientist, the team member playing Darwin's character 
made up a poem to recite. As the scientist, they had their mother's 
brush evolve into a dog brush and they used the fire from the train 
engine to melt the bristles in place.
  Harford Day School is a private school located in Bel Air, Maryland, 
which serves students from pre-kindergarten through the eighth grade. 
The school's team members include Ally Wright, Drew Devanney, Tommy 
Oursler, Charlotte Molali, Livy Ayd, Sammy Bowen, and Will Bolton. The 
team is led by managers Donna Peck and Marcy Sparks.
  Madam Speaker, I ask that you join with me today to honor Harford Day 
School's Destination ImagiNation team. Their high scores at the 
Maryland statewide competition ensure their reputation as a team to be 
reckoned with in the national finals. It is with great pride that I 
congratulate the members of the Harford Day School DI team on their 
success in the statewide competition, and wish the team luck as they 
progress to the national finals.

                          ____________________