Last weekend, 12 teams from local schools participated in the Destination Imagination Provincial Tournament. Valley students continued the tradition of excellence, winning five provincial championships and three other top-three finishes.

One hundred teams from British Columbia, the Yukon, and Alberta converged on Kwantlen Park Secondary School in Surrey to display their skills in critical and creative thinking, innovation, collaboration, communication, and problem solving. This is the pre-eminent venue to display the skills and aptitudes necessary for contemporary demands.

Destination Imagination is the world鈥檚 foremost non-profit dedicated to teaching students the skills needed to succeed in school, their careers and beyond. More than 150,000 students participate annually in 31 countries.

After a brief hiatus, Valley teams returned to dominate the Improvisation Challenge, taking the top three places at the secondary level. Psazzle from Vanier were provincial champions while Heckfire and Darnation, also from Vanier, finished a close second.

The Pink Ladies from Mark R. Isfeld were very close behind the Vanier teams, finishing third, but presented the best solution in the Instant Challenge.

Team Chance, also from Vanier, won the provincial championship in the middle level of the Improvisation Challenge.

This was Vanier鈥檚 first year competing at the provincial level in Destination Imagination and the teams far exceeded expectations.

Team managers Lori Mazey, Dan Comeau and Greg Kochanuk were understandably proud of their teams.

Continuing to show strength in the Fine Arts categories, the Impossibly Incredible Isfelders from Mark R. Isfeld were best in the Secondary level of the Fine Arts Challenge and the Brooklyn Elementary team 7 Squishy Cats had to compete at the middle school level and surprised everyone by winning.

Highland Secondary School continued to develop its excellent reputation in the Engineering Challenge by winning the provincial championship, despite having a disappointing result in the Instant Challenge. Their 22-gram structure made out of balsam wood and glue held more than 340 kilograms and they had to break it deliberately in order for it to mesh accurately with their presentation.

The appraisers were talking about this being the fifth straight year of top-three finishes.

Other teams from the Valley included The Wickeds (Technical Challenge) and JALLT +M (Fine Arts Challenge) from Navigate, Chaos in the Cookie Jar from Highland (Fine Arts), Get Pie鈥檇 from Partners in Education (Fine Arts) and Around the Table from Mark R. Isfeld Secondary, which finished third in the Scientific Challenge.

Overall, the Comox Valley was very well represented, again, and now the teams that qualified by placing in the top three provincially are desperately trying to raise money to attend the Global Finals in Knoxville, Tennessee this May. Congratulations to the team members, parents and teachers working with these students, and good luck to those moving on to the next level.