Aqua Girls move on to DI finals for second year

The Aqua Girls won first in the statewide Destination Imagination competition to advance to the Global Finals in Tennessee.

The Destination Imagination State Competition was held at Mount Vernon Nazarene University in Central Ohio on Saturday, April 20. Three teams from Bay Village Schools competed: Swedish Chefs, Penguins with Swag…BAHM! and the Aqua Girls. The 3 teams spent weeks perfecting their challenge solutions to make them the best they could be. All the teams did a great job representing Bay Schools and everyone had a blast!

While all the teams represented Bay Village well, only the top 3 teams in each challenge get to go on to the next level. The Aqua Girls are moving on to compete at Globals held at the University of Tennessee (for the second year in a row) during the week of May 22-25. We won first place for the “In Disguise” challenge and are looking forward to returning to UT to compete against teams from all over the country and all over the world.

The theme of the Aqua Girls’ show is to remind people that there are animals around the world that are mistreated and we believe that animals belong in their natural environments to live happy, healthy lives. The animals in our show live in a tiny, dirty cage and are taken care of by a mean zookeeper who mistreats them. An animal activist rescues them and takes them back to their natural environment and they all celebrate the animals’ freedom at the end.

The idea of the show came from the Newberry Award-winning book, "The One and Only Ivan." It is an amazing story about a gorilla living in a cage at a mall and is told from the point of view of the gorilla. I highly recommend this book to everyone! Katherine Applegate is the author, and she got the book idea from a real gorilla living at a mall in Tacoma, Washington.

The Aqua Girls, Swedish Chefs and Penguins with Swag…BAHM! would like to thank Mrs. Marian Harmount for driving all the way to Mount Vernon to be an appraiser for the long day at the competition. We also want to thank Mrs. Carrie Engelbrecht, the music teacher at Westerly Elementary, and her husband for being appraisers all day at the competition for us too. We appreciate all of you!   

I am so proud to be a part of the Bay Village Schools' Destination Imagination organization and the Aqua Girls, even though I'm living in South Africa for seven months. I am super excited about Globals and I have a surprise to share with all of you! My dad bought my mom and me plane tickets as a surprise so we can join the Aqua Girls at Globals next month! I can’t wait!! Go Aqua Girls!

The Aqua Girls are fundraising to help cover some of the costs of the trip. If you would like to help us get to the University of Tennessee, please make checks payable to “The Aqua Girls” and send the checks to Marian Harmount at Westerly Elementary, 30301 Wolf Road, Bay Village, Ohio 44140. We would appreciate any help you are willing to give.

Audrey Ray is a fifth-grader at Bay Middle School currently living abroad in South Africa.