After many years together, the Wilton Independent Destination Imagination team is capping off their partnership with a trip to globals.
The team, consisting of six members – five of whom are seniors graduating this year – has been a tight knit group for eight or nine years, depending on when they joined. For most of those years, they have tackled the competition’s improv challenge.
“We’re all kind of ‘think-on-our-feet’ people,” said team member Raven Bartlett, 18, of Wilton.
“It helps a lot in improv that we know each other really well. If one of us has an idea, we know what they’re thinking without them having to say.”
“We have this connection going on that’s really cool,” agreed Gianna Mercier, 17, of Wilton.
The group went into this past year satisfied with their time together, said Bartlett. They were able to go to the global competition last year, and considered that a good feather in their cap to go out on, and went into this year’s competitions relaxed and ready to have fun.
For their challenge, the team had to improvise a skit based off a location and a newsflash, and incorporate a “mysterious stranger” given to them in the midst of their performance.
Their teamwork netted them a first place win at regionals and a second place finish at the state competition – first and second place finishes at states are invited to the global competition in Knoxville, Tennessee at the end of May.
To raise the $9,000 they need to make it to Tennessee, the group has been doing various fundraisers, including “flocking,” a fundraising gimmick where people can pay the team to put dozens of pink plastic lawn flamingoes in a friend or family member’s lawn overnight, as well as some of the more traditional fundraisers like a barbeque and yard sale, as well as an online gofundme.com page at www.gofundme.com/eext2v5w.
For more information about assisting the Wilton team on their fundraising efforts, contact team coach Laura Manning at lbmjj@tds.net.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com.