East Valley Middle School Improv Team Seeking Support for Global Competition Trip

By Colette Buck Current contributor

Student Improv Team ‘Aged Improvolone’ from the East Valley School District’s Highly Capable Program (PEP) is set to attend Destination Imagination’s Global Finals in Kansas City, Missouri, but they need help to get there.

Destination Imagination’s Global Finals is an annual problemsolving competition for some of the world’s brightest minds in kindergarten through college. Students in the United States enter challenge competitions with subjects like theatrical improvisation, engineering, and science at the regional and state levels. State competitions decide which schools head to the finals.

This year, the eighth-grade East Valley team, ‘Aged Improvolone’, is one of two Washington State teams to make it to the improvisational competition at Destination Imagination’s Global Finals. The team won what’s called the ‘Instant Challenge’ at the state competition, which put the team a hair under the first-place team and qualified them for Globals.

“Every team at Destination Imagination…has to do an Instant Challenge. They go into a room… and they have to solve it right then and there,” said East Valley PEP Teacher Heather Schultz. “It could be a performance challenge or it could be a building challenge where they have to build a bridge that holds this weight or spans this gap. Our team actually won that part of the competition at state, which helped boost their score.”

Schultz and her PEP co-teacher, Nicole Thomas, are based at Otis Orchard’s Elementary and spend each week supporting the top 5% of the district’s best-performing students in what’s called the ‘Highly Capable Program’ or PEP. The program services students from kindergarten to eighth grade once a week or month for the entire school year using a curriculum built especially for gifted students.

The most important element of the PEP program is the use of improvisation in everyday learning on what’s called the Brick Wall Improv Theatre. PEP students in second through sixth grades are invited to get up on stage and use the method of improv to make mistakes, learn important life lessons, and even work out personal problems with like-minded peers.

“The other thing that we do is we tackle the characteristics that go with being a gifted kid because most people believe gifted children have it made, but they have no idea the pressure they put on themselves to be perfect, so we deal with that a lot,” Thomas said.

What students take away from the classroom sessions and the competitions varies, but the goal of regularly including improv in classroom lessons is to encourage social-emotional learning that will set students up for success in anything they do once they leave the classroom.

“We’re not learning improv, we’re learning cooperation through improv; we’re learning leadership through improv; we’re learning risk- taking through improv,” Thomas said. “We really emphasize why, so that the kids can know why we’re doing this, and we think…improv should be taught for every student at every level, and that’s kind of our mission.”

As of right now, Aged Improvolone is $7,000 short of their total $13,000 goal to get to the Destination Imagination Global Finals the weekend of May 20. The team is responsible for paying the competition registration fee, travel and hotel costs, and meal costs for the three-day competition. Schultz said the program doesn’t regularly fundraise to send their middle school teams to Destination Imagination because it’s not a regular occurrence for the program.

The East Valley PEP program is taking donations from individual community members and businesses interested in supporting their student’s journey to what Schultz called a ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.’

“Destination Imagination Globals is like the Olympics. It’s an incredible opportunity, and I wish I could take everyone,” Schultz said. “Just being able to see an entire four days committed to academics, creativity, problem-solving, intellect. It’s just the most powerful thing, and if people would come alongside us and help send Aged Improvolone (to Globals), these four teenagers will forever have their lives changed.”

The program is putting on an improvisation show with the Blue Door Theatre at Trent Elementary on May 2. It starts at 6:30 p.m. and admission is free, but donations to the Destination Imagination Global Finals trip are encouraged. There will also be a raffle, snacks and t-shirts available for purchase.

For Schultz and Thomas, the hard work and dedication Team Aged Improvelone has shown over the past school year is merit enough to attend the Destination Imagination Global Finals event. On top of attending their regular PEP sessions, the four students on Aged Improvelone have spent their Monday free time practicing for the competition, often giving up time with their friends and other activities to train.

“This is the third time in 28 years that East Valley will be represented at Global finals, so it’s just so special and so rare, and we just need some help,” Schultz said. “Believe me, these teens are just cool people and they’re going to change the world.”

Go to https://wa-eastvalley361lite.intouchreceipting.com/ to donate to the team.

Student of the Month

Trenton Hlookoff makes it a point to make a difference at Freeman High School. The senior maintains a 3.99 grade point average and is a member of the school’s Conservation Club where he has served as president the last two years. He has been part of establishing a program that converts food waste into compost to be utilized in the community. Hlookoff and his fellow club members have also launched a native plant garden on campus. As part of Freeman’s Future Business Leaders of America chapter, Hlookoff qualified for the national competition in Chicago last year, participating in a group American Enterprise project. The Rockford resident has taken a slew of AP classes in subjects like Environmental Science, Biology, Literature and Calculus. He will attend the University of Washington this fall where his focus will be on Engineering and Renewable Energy.

Athlete of the Month

On the court, track and in the classroom, Maddy Phillips has excelled at Freeman High School. The senior is a four-year varsity letterwinner in basketball and was part of a Scotties’ squad that placed sixth at the 1A State Tournament this season. In a district playoff game that marked her first competition in three weeks due to an injury, Phillips scored 12 points. She has overcome two knee surgeries during her high school career. In track, she competes in discus, javelin and shotput and has lettered all four years. Phillips was selected as Southeast Spokane County Fair Queen last May and represented the fair at events over the past year. She maintains a 3.9 grade point average and is secretary of Freeman’s Future Business Leaders of America chapter. She would like to pursue a career in physical therapy or sports medicine.

Food banks, backpack distributions, after-school programs, community gardens, flood relief – all this and more are part of Patty Marsh’s efforts as director of Adventist Community Services and Disaster Response for the Seventh-Day Adventist Church Upper Columbia Conference. The Spokane Valley resident says, “We can’t do everything but we can do something.” Marsh oversees an area that includes all of Eastern Washington, North Idaho and part of Central Idaho, two counties in Oregon and 111 outreach programs. Marsh also serves on the Greater Valley Support Network Leadership Team. Locally, Adventist Community Services has collaborated on a food bank in Otis Orchards and backpack distribution with Liberty Lake Kiwanis. “I have my ear to the ground,” said Marsh. “I just want to be faithful.” Patty and her husband Larry have been married 54 years and have two grown daughters and three grandchildren.