By Nathan Duke
Staff Writer

Seven Auburn Village School students are learning that a little imagination can go a long way - even to places like Tennessee.

GOING GLOBAL - Auburn Village School's first all-female Destination Imagination team is, from left, Allison Grebloski, Kara DiNatale, Amanda Purcell, Jillian Messier, Kelsey Douville, Ashlynde Egan and Lauren Thayer. The team will go to the Global Finals in Tennessee May 25 to 28. The competition rewards critical thinking and teamwork. (N. Duke Photo)

The school's first all-female Destination Imagination (DI) troupe will be heading to Global Finals in Knoxville, Tenn., after tying for first place in the March regional finals in Goffstown and qualifying for Global by placing second in the April 9 state finals in Nashua.

First-grade teacher Eileen McDonald is the coordinator for the group, which includes sixth-graders Allison Grebloski, 11, and Amanda Purcell, 12, and 13-year-old seventh graders Lauren Thayer, Jillian Messier, Ashlynde Egan, Kara DiNatale and Kelsey Douville.

The group is the first all female team to make it to the finals, which is why the DI troupe chose a skit about women's rights to perform at the three competitions.

At DI competitions, each group is given a list of problems to choose from and create an accompanying skit. The focus of the competition is to promote critical thinking and teamwork, and each group must present their problem solving inventions and skits at the final competition.

McDonald's group had to create a serendipitous invention for the competition, and they chose a time machine. In their skit, two of the girls at a sleepover are arguing about whether women's rights have changed much over the years. They create a time machine and travel to a number of nations in the past, including the United States during the Women's Suffrage movement, Afghanistan and Egypt. As they travel to each country, they take a woman from each time period along with them, who are played by the other five girls in the group.

"At first our skit was just going to be about a sleepover where we go back in time," said Ashlynde Egan. "Then, we realized we had all girls in our group, so we decided to include women's rights (in the skit)."

The girls all said they enjoyed performing their skit - Sudden SerenDIpity - at the finals, though it took several months to perfect their skit. The group began practicing their skit in November. Since placing second in the state finals, they have not rehearsed, but will start back this week to practice for Global Finals in Tennessee, which will run from Wednesday, May 25, to Saturday, May 28.

However, each member of the group said her favorite element of the finals is the pin trade, in which competitors from around the country and, at Global Finals, all over the world can trade pins. The incentive is for DI students to trade information with one another and make new friends from different places.

"I'm looking forward to the pin trade because it sounds really fun,. said Global first-timer Egan. "I want to meet people from different places. You can make pen pals."

DiNatale said each country has a differently designed pin, and she wants to collect them all.

"Some of the pins are not standard metal pins," she said. "One from South Korea had a white mask with a halo of thread flowers on it."

Purcell had other reasons for excitement about the pin trade. "I'd like to meet British people," she said, to which her friends all chimed, "British guys!"

DI Global Finals features a number of activities, including a costume ball. The seven members of the troupe are all dressing in costumes from different points in American culture. A few of them will be 1920s flappers and a few hippies from the 1960s, though they could not decide if the disco years were in the early or late 1970s.

McDonald said DI is a great project for students because it encourages teamwork, critical thinking and problem-solving, as well as gives students the opportunity to network with people their age from different states and countries.

"DI promotes risk-taking - you are conditioned to not want to be laughed at," she said. "Sometimes, it is the out-of-thebox thinkers that do better than kids who grow predictably and normally. You have to be loose and willing to just put yourself out there and risk being laughed at."

She said one of the best aspects of the all-female group is that many of them did not formerly know one another and have now become close, which she said is a result of the many hours spent rehearsing their skit.

"From November to March - after school, nights, weekends - their commitment was big," she said. "Lots of times, you start off gung ho about something and then ski trips come up, but these kids have made (DI) a priority. They have been a steadfast group and it is nice to see they have grown friendships. We are a small school, but many of these girls would not have known each other."