Think, fast

Between challenges, Sarah Gentry built a tall tower out of blocks at one of the many stations in the Baker High School commons during the Destination ImagiNation tournament Saturday. (Baker City Herald/Kathy Orr)

As the clock counts down their seven minutes of preparation time, the team members develop, on the spot, a skit about why the endangered condor should be saved.

When their voices begin to rise in disagreement, the audience suddenly hears three whaps — a quick match of rock-paper-scissors to make a decision.

Then the timer beeps and they take the stage to present an improvised eight-minute play as their challenge in the regional competition of Destination ImagiNation held Saturday at Baker High School.

Sixteen teams attended the event, representing Baker City, Ontario, Imbler, La Grande, Umatilla and Salem-Keizer (this western Oregon team couldn’t attend their own regional competition, so instead made the long trip east).

Destination ImagiNation, also known as DI,  is a non-profit organization that provides programs for students to learn creativity, teamwork and problem solving.

Each team has an adult manager to encourage the youth. However, that manager cannot give the children ideas or suggestions that would influence their projects.

All the hard work culminates in a regional competition, and from there the top teams can advance to state and even to global finals.

At those contests, the teams give their prepared presentation to a team of Appraisers. Each group also does an Instant Challenge, a problem they must solve in five to eight minutes with no preparation.

And, once they’ve completed it, they can’t tell anyone what it involved.

“They’re locked in a room and I don’t even know what they’re doing,” said Chelsea Hurliman, who manages the teams from South Baker School.

“We can’t even tell our parents,” said Lacey Foersterling, a fifth-grader from South Baker.

And between challenges, the youth tried their skills at “Brain Teaser” stations set up in the commons area. These included tic-tac-toe, moving M&Ms across a table with a straw (they had to secure the candy to the straw by inhaling a breath), and building towers out of small pieces of wood.

“It took me forever,” Connor McLain, 10, said of the house he built that featured interior rooms and furniture.

“I just like to build,” he said with a shrug. McLain is a South Baker fourth-grader.

After all the scores were tallied Saturday, 14 teams had qualified for the state tournament on April 10 at Crescent Valley High School in Corvallis.

And, said regional director Melissa Garner, a huge part of DI is the volunteers — Saturday’s event had nearly 50.

“Plus all the team managers who do it voluntarily,” Garner said.

To learn more about DI, visit the Web site www.idodi.org. Each year, the challenges are revealed on Sept. 1, and teams have until Jan. 15 to register.