HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 987 Offered February 19, 2007 Commending the Monelison Middle School Destination ImagiNation team. ---------- Patrons-- Cline and Valentine; Senators: Newman and Ruff ----------

WHEREAS, the Monelison Middle School Destination ImagiNation team from Amherst County won first place in the 2006 Destination ImagiNation state competition; and

WHEREAS, the outstanding Monelison Middle School team competed in Destination ImagiNation, an international creative problem-solving competition open to students from kindergarten through college level in which teams of seven members select one team challenge to complete; and

WHEREAS, the team’s challenge consisted of the competition's required components of engineering, drama, research, technical innovation, creativity, and problem solving; and

WHEREAS, the Monelison Middle School Destination ImagiNation team members were Beth Woerner, Caroline Hall, Jodee Harris, Conner Peters, Ashley Wayne, and Steven Woerner; and

WHEREAS, the talented team designed and built a machine for the challenge called “Back At You”; and

WHEREAS, the winning machine, designed and built solely by the Monelison team members, shot ping pong balls into a receiver located 12 feet away and four feet off the ground, which then returned the balls through a tube to the delivery area so they could be launched again; and

WHEREAS, the team was also required to integrate a skit into the challenge that involved someone or something “that has gone away and come back,” and the Monelison Middle School Destination ImagiNation team successfully accomplished the task in a creative skit entitled “Moonelison”; and

WHEREAS, the Monelison Middle School Destination ImagiNation team then competed and won the Jefferson Region competition, where the team members set as a goal a team score of 1,000 points, and not only achieved their goal, but exceeded it by scoring 1,119 points; and

WHEREAS, in a crowning achievement, the enthusiastic and accomplished team traveled to Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, where the members triumphed in an exciting state competition victory; and

WHEREAS, representing the Commonwealth, the Monelison Middle School Destination ImagiNation team traveled to the University of Tennessee to appear in the Global Level competition, where the team performed admirably, placing 12th in the central challenge and 20th out of 63 teams from across the nation in the overall standings; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly commend and congratulate the Monelison Middle School Destination ImagiNation team members on their outstanding performance and state championship win; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the members of the Monelison Middle School Destination ImagiNation team as an expression of the General Assembly’s appreciation of their achievement and best wishes for continued academic success.