A team of five students from Harvard and one from Fitchburg placed third in the middle school level of the fine arts challenge at the Massachusetts state Destination Imagination tournament at Worcester Polytechnic Institute Saturday, March 30. The team, which calls itself the Pennybag Playwrights, will represent Massachusetts at the global competition in Kansas City, Missouri, May 23–26. Although it was competing at the middle school level, the team includes only two middle schoolers, seventh-graders Sam Evans and Wyatt Neville. Additional team members include third-grader Zach Evans, and three fifth-graders, Jonathan Evans, Lauren McKeever, and James Niall (of Fitchburg).
After placing second at the regional tournament at Ayer Shirley Regional High School March 2, the Pennybag Playwrights made multiple improvements to their performance and beat the regional first-place team from Groton-Dunstable.
From left: James Niall, Zach Evans, Jonathan Evans, Wyatt Neville, Lauren McKeever, and Sam Evans. (Courtesy photo)
Destination Imagination is a global educational nonprofit that challenges teams of two to seven kids to come up with creative and innovative solutions to problems and present those solutions in a skit.
To learn more about the program, watch the Harvard team’s performance at the state competition, or make a donation to help the team raise the $5,500 registration fee to get to Kansas City, visit www.gofundme.com/pennybagplaywrights. You can also send a tax-deductible donation to Destination Imagination, Attn: GF Donation Dept., 1111 South Union Avenue, Cherry Hill, NJ 08002. Make checks payable to Destination Imagination and be sure to include team number 119-49544 on your check.
