Pretty Little DI'ers make memories at finals

After weeks of fundraising, the "Pretty Little DI'ers" made their way to Knoxville, Tenn. to participate in the Destination Imagination Global Finals on May 19.

More than 15,000 people attended the event including more than 1,100 teams from 45 states, seven Canadian provinces and 13 countries.

The girls did their performance just after lunch the following day in the Clarence Brown Theatre on the University of Tennessee campus.

According to their director, Wes Meier, there was a bit of a glitch that morning once the girls had everything set up and started practicing.

"They had to redesign their sound machine as they could not find one of the bungee cords that they needed to hold part of the machine in place," Meier said. "They used some wire to hold it together. It was some great last minute team work."

The young ladies put on their best performance for the Appraisers, unfortunately, they couldn't see their second "visual" display of sound waves and received a zero score for that portion.

One of the highlights of the trip was the opening ceremonies held at the Thompson Boling Arena where University of Tennessee plays basketball. Jariah Cogdill and Meier had the privilege of walking in the opening parade of countries and nations.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin spoke that night along with others and the girls got to dance the night away to a band after the ceremonies.

The Duct Tape Ball was held the next night and the girls put together some cool Duct Tape costumes for the event.

Meier said that was his favorite activity during the week.

The girls' next activity was the "instant challenge" on Friday, May 22.

According to Meier, the girls had to complete the challenge in five to eight minutes and then that score and their previous score from Wednesday are added together for their final score of the week.

The girls participated in the Scientific Middle level and placed 30th out of 68 teams in their level.

Meier said there are all kinds of photos and videos about the challenge that can be viewed online, all you have to do is search for Destination Imagination Global Finals 2015.