Destination ImagiNation team disbands

ST. PETER May 20, 2007 11:57 pm

— What will they miss? More like what won’t they miss.
There’s the Little Debbie Zebra Cakes they always ate at the first meeting of the year. There’s that time when they ran through the fountain at global finals. Or how about their mascot Sally Morrow, the quirkiest, cutest 10-year-old around who goes on the road with them to all their tournaments?
For these reasons and thousands more, many tears have been shed by the Giggling Gulls — five St. Peter girls who came together nine years ago in kindergarten to form an early version of a Destination ImagiNation team. (Incidentally, the team name was the Giggling Girls, but Morrow pronounced it Gulls when she was younger and couldn’t pronounce her Rs.)
After all these years as best friends, not to mention becoming mini celebrities in the D.I. world, the girls have decided to call it quits to pursue other interests, including, but not limited to, soccer, gymnastics, basketball, tennis and track.
Even though it’s time to move on, they’re going to miss the excuse to get together every week and act goofy.
“Our team isn’t like a basketball or a volleyball team. We’re like a little family of these giggling girls,” said 14-year-old Bailey Zallek. “We’ve all grown together.”
The girls — Zallek, Alyssa Johnson, 14, Maddy Herberg, 15, Sidney Dirks, 13, and Maggie Morrow, 13 (who turns 14 in a week, she vehemently noted) — plan to go out with a bang, they said. They’re headed Tuesday to the D.I. global finals in Knoxville, Tenn., where they’ve been several times — and not because getting in is an easy feat to achieve.
JoEllen Dirks, regional director, said the girls’ accomplishments are amazing. Destination ImagiNation is a complicated, creativity and problem-solving program that involves various skills and relies heavily on teamwork. Challenges range from improv performance to construction-based activities, such as being asked on the spot to build a bridge out of crepe paper that can hold two staplers without using their hands.
The girls choose between five categories (improv this year), but aren’t quite sure what they’ll be asked to do when they get there. This year they were given six destinations, and they’ll be asked to take the judges to three of them via group performance. They’ll also have to incorporate a photograph they’ll be shown just before the performance, among other challenges.
“These are actual life skills,” Zallek said. “You learn things about yourself, and you learn things about each other.”
Chemistry is what coach Martha Morrow says makes the girls so good at what they do. They know each other so well, they seem to follow each other’s thought patterns effortlessly while performing — which is part of what has drawn so much attention to the girls at global finals. People look up the Giggling Gulls on the schedule so they can be sure to catch their performance.
“In the D.I. world, they’re really famous,” Morrow said.
That has been a big surprise to the girls. They don’t even know how well they do at tournaments. Last year they knew they placed fifth out of 80 or so teams worldwide, which is a huge accomplishment, but they didn’t know why.
The girls refuse to look at their points. It’s never been about winning for them. It’s too much fun to worry about that.
“Obviously first would be amazing,” said Maggie Morrow. “But we wouldn’t be brokenhearted if we didn’t win.”
The girls made the decision to compete in the senior level this year, which they were able to do because Herberg is 15. They could have competed at mid-level, but they wanted to say they had done everything before retiring.
Even at the more difficult level, the girls placed first at regionals and second at state. They hope to do well at globals, where they will compete next Saturday, but that’s not really a big concern. What’s most important to them is “to have as much fun as possible.”
“We just want to end with a big boom” Zallek said.

At A Glance
The Giggling Gulls have fallen short on fundraising this year and are about $1,000 short of the $5,000 needed to compete at global finals for Destination ImagiNation.
Donations can be sent to St. Peter D.I., 418 Chatham St., St. Peter, MN, 56082.

Photos

The Free Press