School board to help students, coaches reach Portland airport
CARIBOU, Maine — The RSU 39 school board recently agreed to help two Destination Imagination teams get to Knoxville, Tennessee to compete in the Global Finals.
According to Alva King of LCS, who spoke on behalf of two teams comprised of 11 students and two coaches, Limestone’s DI teams always used to fly to the finals, so they had to switch to busses. Though Limestone has traditionally traveled with Presque Isle and Washburn teams, this year Presque Isle booked a $700/person flight and Washburn decided to transport students in vans.
Eventually, the group found plane tickets that cost approximately $325 per student for six students, and then more tickets that were slightly more expensive to cover the remaining students. Though the group has saved money on the plane tickets, they now have to leave via the Portland airport as opposed to Presque Isle’s.
“We still need a bus to get to Portland,” King said to the school board. “We’re asking you to please consider this expense, and I know it to be one, for these 11 students and two coaches to get to that world stage one more time and see if we can bring home that trophy. We have some really excited children, and I don’t know of any group or population in our school district that can offer more to the future of who we all are than these children. They are all creative risk-takers, and they’ll be a frog, a butterfly, they’ll be anything they have to be to get there.”
Superintendent Doak congratulated King and the Destination Imagination members attending the meeting, and asked what they did to reach the global finals.
King explained that all teams have the same budget to work with, regardless of their school’s size, and that their problem was entitled ‘Get a Clue,’ and the Limestone students wrote a play and studied Egyptian culture extensively.
“Our kids did the research and the legwork,” King explained. “They had to be prepared to speak to a whole panel of judges, and those judges questioned them quite a lot, but the kids created a solution and won against the other four teams in our division.”
The group will be landing in Nashville and taking a two-hour bus ride to Knoxville.
Doak asked if there was a cultural sightseeing opportunity, which King said there was.
“I wouldn’t want you just to go for competition, I’d want the kids to be able see the area, because it is beautiful.” said Doak.
According to Doak, a bus trip to and from Portland should cost just under $2,000 and the school board has the money set aside for situations like this in their budget. Upon hearing about all the hard work that Limestone DI teams have done, the school board quickly agreed to help them compete on a global level.
“When you look at all the work they have done with the competition and with fundraising,” said Chairperson Tanya Sleeper. “I think this is the least we can do.”
