We’re In It Together for the long haul!

By: Emily George

Picture yourself, a young impressionable teenager far away from your home and family; plopped down in the middle of a foreign country, specifically in a small Ohio town, with no idea what your next few months will look like. Could you do it? I know I couldn’t.

These 7 young adults did just that and flourished.

Mikolaj, Nini, Kazuki, Sara, Mehmet, Gloriya and Edward, are all students at Worthington City Schools.

 The majority of the team is made up of first year DIers, with Mik being the only DI veteran. Mik hails from Poland and had competed in DI in his home country two years prior to this year. His hometown team made it to Global Finals twice before, and when Mik was celebrating his current teams advance to Globals, he got word the team he left behind in Poland will also advance. Mehmet, who hails from Turkey, is a theatre enthusiast, participating in this year’s theatrical productions uses his experience from the stage to bring the team’s skit to life. Kazuki, originally from Japan, is on the Lacrosse team and loves to use his team spirit to incorporate his teammates varied ideas into one cohesive storyline. Nini, from Georgia, is an artist, and used her talent to help paint the team’s moving wheel as part of their set and team choice element. Edward, from the US, uses his infectious enthusiasm to add personality to the script they have written. Sara, who comes from Palestine, uses her ingenuity to help her team create one of a kind props and costumes using Duct Tape for their Team Choice Element, as well as helped write the script. Gloriya, who hails from Ukraine, used her artistic talent as a musician to write and compose an original music piece that was used in their performance. Together these 7 young adults have worked together as a “Mini UN” as their Team Manager Robin affectionately calls them, to use their unique abilities, different ideas, and individual strengths to compete in this wonderful competition.

Worthington City sent 27 teams to Destination Imagination at the Regional level, one of several that made it to the State level and The Scheme Benders was the only team to advance to the Global level. These kids have worked hard for months, first twice, then three nights a week after school, in between sports and extracurricular activities; eventually meeting every night to brainstorm their ideas, design costumes and props, discuss storylines and build their set from the ground up, and put it all together into their amazing 8 minute skit.

Destination Imagination is a wonderful program that gives children and adults ages 4 – 25, the opportunity to learn new skills; like how to build a set of four just under one foot high wooden structures that could withstand 300 lbs, or how to manufacture a spinning wheel affixed to a standing background. It teaches them to work together and be diplomatic, to use little bits of everyone’s ideas in the script, help each other design and sew costumes. It gives them the opportunity to learn about new places or to learn a word or a phrase from a different language. It brings people from all around the globe together and gives these kids a community of friends and companions the world over. DI teaches us that while we are all our own individuals, we’re all in it together.