Holliston DI Team Wins for Giving Back!

The Holliston Destination Imagination team comprised of Holliston High School seniors Ariana Ameli, Ryan Cahill, and Abby Meltzer; Holliston High School sophomores James Crews and Kent Perlmutter; and Mass Academy senior Joshua Perlmutter won a first place award during the DI Global Finals in Knoxville, TN for the Instant Challenge portion of their Service Learning Challenge, “The Meme Event.” At the Global Finals Tournament, the teams competed in their Central Challenge and in an Instant Challenge. The Secondary Level of the Service Learning Challenge, “Meme Event,” had a total of 52 teams from 21 different states and 5 different countries, including Canada, Guatemala, Mexico, Poland, and Turkey.
The team, calling themselves The Creativi-Trees, has been together six years (with some members having participated in DI for ten years). Even though the team had made it to Global Finals five years ago, this was their first time earning a 1st place award. To the team’s delight, they received their first place medals in front of over 17,000 people from 20 different countries. In addition to the 1st place award, the team came in 5th place overall in the Service Learning Challenge and all due to their giving back to the community.
Starting back in August, the team chose the Service Learning Challenge for this year’s DI season. As part of the Service Learning Challenge, the team had to plan a community event that would give back to the community in some way. The team chose to host the first ever Holliston Film Festival in order to make money for the Art Department at Holliston High School, which had suffered budget cuts for this school year. Their January 31 Film Festival was a success having garnered 14 film submissions and an audience of over 60 people. The festival raised $413. The team solicited prizes from local businesses for the top film submissions: The Candy Cottage, Jasper Hill, Fiske’s, and Dairy Queen all donated gift certificates.
The team also found community partners with experience in film or the arts to judge the films: the judges included Daniel Knapp, award-winning producer of educational media; Raouf Zaki, film director and producer with a filmography on IMDb; Doug Lack, Fine & Performing Arts Department Leader and Distinguished Educator; and New England landscape painter Holly Lombardo.
At the end of the film festival, the team handed out the first place prize to Kyra Allen for her film “Her Name Was Emily”; second place and Audience Award went to Javier Rojo from Venezuela for his film “Spring is Here”; and third place went to Nolan Murphy for his film “Pinball Wizard”. The team decided to award the $413 to the Holliston High School Art Department under the care of Mr. Doug Lack so that he could purchase a color printer for the school.
Now that the team’s community event was over, they had to put together a skit to showcase the event to DI appraisers at the Regional Tournament, which took place at Holliston High School on March 19. The skit they created featured four super heroes: Captain Plan It, Film Buff, Morph Man, and Smooth Talk who defeated the dreaded villain, Budget Cuts. The skit also featured original music (both composition and lyrics) by team member James Crews, who played guitar during the skit. The team won first place in the Regional Tournament and went on to the State Tournament at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) on March 26. The State Tournament had stiff competition, but the team was able to place 2nd. The top two teams at States qualify for the Global Finals tournament in Knoxville, TN from May 24-29. One other Holliston team also qualified for Global Finals; this team, consisting of Holliston High School sophomores Maria Gentile, Olivia Palmer, Jenna Pralat, and Hazel Peters, qualified in the Improvisation Challenge.
Once the two teams knew that they qualified for the Global Tournament, they joined efforts in their fundraising. All of a sudden pink flamingos showed up in people’s yards as the “flocking” began. Their flocking efforts raised over $1400; both teams also put on a Kid’s Night Out, which raised over $1600. Adding that to the amount given by Holliston DI through Holliston PTSA, the amount donated by Fiske’s General Store, by Melanie Harrington through the Yoga Exchange, and each team’s GoFundMe Page, which collected generous donations from community members, friends, and family, the teams were able to cover most of the cost of attending the tournament.
Going forward, team member James Crews has already started planning to turn the Film Festival into Holliston’s 2nd Annual Film Festival, and he and Kent Perlmutter will continue with the Holliston DI program. The seniors on the team have indicated a desire to meet up together next year to compete in the University Level.
For more information about Holliston Destination Imagination, please contact Holliston DI Town Coordinator, Kristine Perlmutter, at kristineperlmutter@hotmail.com.