The Infamous Dragon Hat

For many years, Jay coached Raine's Destination Imagination team, and when she moved up to the Ryan School, Jay coached Tyler's team.     

For those who don't know what DI is, this is from their website:

"DI is a community-based, non-profit, volunteer-driven educational organization that teaches young people from kindergarten through university-level the critical and creative thinking skills needed for success in the 21st Century.  DI works with more than 250,000 children and young adults in all 50 states and more than 40 countries each season.  DI teaches the processes of Creative Problem Solving and teamwork."

After being promoted to Vice President of QA at his company, his added responsibilities prevented him from taking the time off on Fridays to continue being a coach.  So this year, he volunteered to be an appraiser at the DI tournament, even though both our kids decided not to participate in the program.  

One of the perks of being an appraiser, at least according to Jay, was getting to build a hat that he would wear the day of the tournament.  In fact, I think that was the driving force behind his volunteering!  Together Jay and Raine came up with the idea of a dragon hat, and with the help of Tyler, they designed and created the hat.  Being Jay, it could not be just any old dragon hat, it had to be way, WAY over-the-top.  It took about two whole weekends and a few weeknights to complete it.

On the day of the tournament, the kids and I arrived just in time for the closing ceremony...and the judging of the hats.  All the appraisers lined up on stage and the audience had to clap for the hat they wanted to win.  Jay's only competition was a young guy who built a hat that lit up and spit out candy.   Oh, no!!  Bribery!    Could Jay's dragon overcome the lure of candy?  YES!!!  It was close, but Jay won the contest and got a trophy for his efforts!  It was all worth it.

Jay works on molding the chicken wire into the shape of a dragon.

Raine paints scales.

The frame is complete!

Front view of the dragon hat.

Side view of the dragon hat.

Rear view of the dragon hat.

The judging of the hats.  I brought my point-and-shoot camera, and of course, the batteries were pretty much dead.  I was able to get this one shot off.  Jay is on the far left on stage.  You can't really see in this picture, but the person standing to his right was his biggest competition, and nearly took the prize.

Jay's beautiful trophy!!