Two Destination Imagination teams bring home prizes at international competition

Two Destination Imagination teams are celebrating victories in a recent international competition.

The Dazzling Six Bananas, a group of fourth graders at the Bruno M. Ponterio Ridge Street School won First Place and The Toto-ly Oz-some Girls, comprised of sixth graders at Blind Brook Middle School, received a fifth-place prize. Both teams competed in the 2025 Global Finals in Kansas City, MO in the Fine Arts Challenge.

Wearing bright yellow t-shirts, the “Bananas” got together at BMPRSS to discuss their recent victory. Still full of excitement, the group was ready to try another challenge next year and hopeful that more students would join their team.

“It’s just really cool because you get to problem solve and brainstorm ideas,” said Santiago P. of what makes being a part of DI so compelling.

Teammates Abigail G., Wyatt M., Maggie M. and Cooper M. echoed that sentiment, noting that they joined because it offers a creative outlet, and they learn new skills.

Teams meet weekly, and more often as the competition approached. They spent time solving different challenges. Once it’s decided in what category they will compete in, the team works to draft a script, build a set, get costumes and put on a mini production showcasing their hard work.

The Bananas team wrote their script in rhyme thinking it would be easier to memorize. They worked to tell a story about the famous “Susie,” a colorful fish who becomes ill, due to pollution in the ocean where she lives. Susie had swallowed a water bottle causing her to turn gray. Her story goes viral, and eventually Susie regains her health and returns to her beautiful, rainbow-colored self.

“It was amazing,” Abigail B. said of being at the competition. “It’s really an amazing experience.”

Martha Rosen has been overseeing the DI team for years and said it’s a wonderful way for students to learn new things outside of the classroom.

“It offers students a format to think in a way they don’t get to normally,” Ms. Rosen said. “It’s an open-ended problem to solve with no adult intervention. The children have to do all of the brainstorming and coming up with ideas.”

“I love watching them approach each level. They pushed themselves to improve,” she said.

As part of the competition the team had to participate in an Instant Challenge, where they were given a problem and had to develop a way to solve it within a certain time. In addition, they all agreed with one another that great part of being there was trading and collecting pins with the other teams at the competition.

The entire team said it took a minute before they realized they had won a first-place prize. They saw BMPRSS flashed on the screen and it was a few seconds before they realized it was indeed them and their school.

“It was amazing,” said Abigail B.

The BBMS team “Oz-Some Girls,” is comprised of two teams that decided to join together, finding they worked well together, Bhoomi D., Arya E., Reha P., Ella S., Megan T. Ellie T. Some of them had been part of DI while in elementary school and enjoyed it so much they stayed involved. DI is open to students through college.

Ella S. said the team’s challenge this year was to tell the story of something small that had a big impact relating to historical fiction, as they were competing in the Fine Arts “Less is More” category.

The team opted to tell the story of the Boston Tea Party, with a twist—a loyalist spy misconstrues the plan, rather than TIPPING the tea (into the Boston Harbor), the plan they thought they heard was SIPPING the tea. So, a tea party was planned resulting in the colonies remaining under British rule and future patriots meeting at “Starpounds” (rather than at Starbucks) for tea.

“We were a mix of both nervous and excited,” while at the global competition, said Ella S., adding that ultimately the team was happy with their finish.

The thing that most upsets them now is they no longer get to meet.

“There’s so much preparation and now it's gone,” Bhoomi said.

There is something to look forward to however, they all plan to continue in DI next year.

“One of our main goals is to inspire younger kids,” Araya said. “If you don’t do DI you are missing out.”