Archive 2008 - 2019

Tumble and Twist

by Barbara Daly
4/15/2017

On Tuesday, April 18, bring your kids, ages 4-11 to Elite Gymnastics at 260 Eliot Street in Ashland for Tumble and Twist from 12:45-2:00 pm. The afternoon will include structured activities and light snacks. The fee is $15, and 100% of the proceeds will benefit the Holliston Education Foundation (HEF), and the three Holliston Destination Imagination (DI) teams that are headed to the Globals Tournament in Tennessee.

Destination Imagination is a creativity and teamwork competition where kids in grades 3-12 can showcase their problem solving skills. There are two elements to the Destination Imagination tournament: Instant Challenge and Central Challenge. In an Instant Challenge, the kids walk into a room and don’t know what they are going to find. It could be 3 paper clips and a mailing label and they are asked to build the tallest tower possible. Or they could be asked to perform a skit with no words. For Central Challenge, the teams choose from one of six categories: Technical, Scientific, Fine Arts, Improvisational and Service Learning. They are given a challenge to address, work on their solution for several months, and present their challenge at the tournament. The hitch: there is no parental or other kind of interference allowed. The team's solution needs to be 100% their own. If a child needs a costume for his skit, he may need to learn to sew in order to make it! This year, 3 creative and talented Holliston teams were named as top teams in Massachusetts, and invited to the Globals Tournament in Tennessee, held May 24-27.
Ten year old Aidan Daly is on the Improv team The Barking Donuts, managed by Peter Rosen and Kerri Caruso. He loves DI because "loves to make up skits and it's fun to be funny." At the States competition, his team was required to create 3 skits, each of which involved a character that was building a road, and a bride who was running away from her wedding. One of the skits had to be done in the style of Courtroom Drama, and Aidan played a judge who declared, "I have a gavel, and I'm not afraid to use it!" His teammate Tyler Scaringella added to the skit by playing The Wedding March on a tiny xylophone, while Hannah Kobbs built 3 different roads from 3 different materials for the 3 different skits. Sound confusing? Well, it is at first…but the kids show the audience how it’s done, and it all makes sense when it comes together! Team manager Kerri Caruso said, “DI is such a fantastic program that teaches kids teamwork, flexibility, creativity, and thinking outside the box. The first thing they learn is not to say no to any idea…they say yes, and then build on that, and that’s something most adults can’t do.”
It is a huge undertaking to send 3 teams – 19 people in total, including the children and their team managers – to the Globals tournament, but the kids, teams managers and parents are mobilized and working hard to raise funds so that the kids can achieve their dream. Kristy Wiwczar said, “it’s like an Instant Challenge to get the kids to Tennessee. You’re given a problem to solve: get kids from point A to point B, using planes, buses and automobiles and a limited amount of funds.”

Keep your eye out for other upcoming Holliston Globals Bound DI teams: On Friday, May 12 there will be a Kids Night Out at Placentino School in Holliston; Sunday, May 14 at 3 pm, Dinoman will be performing at Jordan Hall in Holliston (www.dinoman.org) . For information on any of these, please contact Barbara Daly at bdaly696@gmail.com.

To learn more about Destination Imagination, click here: https://www.destinationimagination.org/. To register for Tumble and Twist, or to make a donation to the Destination Imagination Globals Bound teams, please contact Heather Scaringella at hscaringella@yahoo.com. For more information on Elite Gymnastics, please visit http://www.elitega.com/.