Skudlarek family’s roots run deep in Destination ImagiNation

It was Terry Skudlarek’s children who lead her to Destination ImagiNation and 22 years later, she’s as involved as ever.

In fact, her husband, Bill, has her beat by a year. He helped coach a team when their son was interested. A year later, when their daughter wanted to join, too, Terry got involved.

Terry is now coordinator for the Miamisburg teams. “That’s part of my job as gifted coordinator,” she said, referring to her position with the Miamisburg Local School District.

And it’s a job that’s left her with pride for the 13 teams who represented Miamisburg last year.

Five of those teams went to the DI global competition in Knoxville in May.

What’s Destination ImagiNation? The organization says it “allows participants of all ages to access their creativity, learn problem-solving skills, and experience successful teamwork strategies as they develop unique solutions to challenges.”

Those “challenges” come in five varieties and may involve projects in mechanical skills, science, fine arts, improvisation and even architectural design.

Each team may have up to seven members. There’s a program called “Rising Stars” for younger children in kindergarten through third grade that allows for local competition and immediate feedback.

DI itself, though, is for students in grades three through college. They learn to problem solve as a group, produce creative solutions and to think outside the box.

Working together with others is a hot button with employers. It’s something as an educator that Skudlarek says businesses challenge the schools to do better.

As the local coordinator for DI, Skudlarek said her job entails processing applications from students, putting teams together, gathering needed materials and meeting with team managers.

“I have not coached for 15 years,” she said.

Also instrumental in Miamisburg’s Destination ImagiNation success is Donna Fontaine. “Donna works tirelessly to help the team managers of the teams from Miamisburg. She and I hold monthly meetings for the team managers during the school year,” said Skudlarek.

“In addition, she helps the individual team managers by acting as a mentor for each of them. In this role, she is available to help in any way she can and will attend meetings that the different teams hold to work with the students specifically to help develop their creative problem solving skills.”

Skudlarek calls Fontaine “a driving force.”

Miamisburg’s team coaches last year were Jim and Donna Fontaine, Amy Jendruczak, Scott Singleton, Beth Kepple, Deena Collins, Loann Burke, Raushanah Uqdah, Raheem Uqdah, Kathy Gaiser, Stephanie Sprinkle, Mike Burke, Cheryl Mathis, Sandra and Shad Reed, Jennifer Harold, Elaine Brewster, Paige and Scott Farmer.

Terry’s husband, William, works with DI, too, and serves as treasurer for the Dayton region’s board of directors.

A graduate of Miamisburg High School, Terry met her husband while both were students at the University of Dayton.

She’s always on the lookout for parents who’d like to coach a team. Students are canvassed at the beginning of each school year to consider becoming a DI team member.

Those interested can contact Skudlarek through the Miamisburg Board of Education office at (937) 866-3381. For more information, visit www.idodi.org.

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