Press Release #1

Chicon 7 Teams with Destination ImagiNation Teams for Caruso Middle School, Westmore Elementary School

Press Release #1 / May 25, 2011

by Chris M. Barkley, Media Relations/Chicon 7

Chicago, Illinois, USA -  Chicon 7, the 70th annual World Science Fiction Convention, has announced its sponsorship for several local area schools attending the Destination ImagiNation Global Championships that will be held on May 25-28 in in Knoxville, Tenneessee. The local schools being supported are Caruso Middle School in Deerfield, Westmore Elementary School and Ardmore Elementary School, both in Villa Park.

Chicon 7 will be donating a total of $800 to help with the participants' and coaches' travel expenses to Tennessee. Chicon 7 will also donate a backpack for each participant. Caruso has sent numerous teams to Globals over the years and in 2008 won the Global Championship. This year, Caruso is sending seven teams totaling 42 students to Globals.

Ardmore has been competing for several years. This year, Ardmore is sending two teams totaling 11 students to Globals. The Westmore and Caruso Elementary Schools both qualified for spots in Global competition with their outstanding performance in the recent Destination Imagination State Tournament held April 9 on the campus of Illinois State University.

Destination ImagiNation is an international problem solving competition that was created in 2000. The main focus of the organization is to help students develop creativity, teamwork, and problem solving skills. Destination ImagiNation was developed in collaboration with the world-renowned Center for Creative Learning. Teams from all 50 states and more than 40 countries around the world compete in a variety of categories.

To qualify for Globals, a team must place in the top three in both their regional and state competitions. Competition is open to students from elementary school through college in divisions divided by age. Destination ImagiNation websites:
http://www.idodi.org/
http://www.globalfinals.org/

Chicon 7 is the 70th World Science Fiction Convention and the seventh Worldcon to be held in Chicago. The Guests of Honor include:

• Author Guest of Honor Mike Resnick was born in Chicago in 1942, Mr. Resnick attended the University of Chicago from 1959 to 1961 where he met his future wife, Carol. He is the recipient of five Hugo Awards for Best Short Fiction and his 34 Hugo nominations through 2010 are the all-time record for a writer.
   
• Artist Guest of Honor Rowena Morrill: Over a career that has spanned over two decades, her paintings and illustrations have graced hundreds of book covers, calendars, portfolios, trading cards, and appeared in magazines such as Playboy. She currently lives in upstate New York.
   
• Astronaut Guest of Honor Story Musgrave was selected for NASA's scientist-astronaut program in August 1967. He was a mission specialist on STS-6 in 1983, STS-51-F/Spacelab-2 in 1985, STS-33 in 1989 and STS-44 in 1991, was the payload commander on STS-61 in 1993, and a mission specialist on STS-80 in 1996. A veteran of six space flights, Musgrave has spent a total of 1281 hours 59 minutes, 22 seconds in space. Musgrave is the only astronaut to have flown missions on all five Space Shuttles. Prior to John Glenn's return to space in 1998, Musgrave held the record for the oldest person in orbit, at age 62. He retired from NASA in 1997. He is also the first astronaut to be honored by the World Science Fiction Convention. He currently resides in Lexington, Kentucky.
   
• Fan Guest of Honor Peggy Rae Sapienza is a second-generation fan originally from the Philadelphia area. She ran Programming and Special Events for Constellation, the 1983 Worldcon in Baltimore. She served as Vice-Chairman for ConFrancisco, the 1993 Worldcon in San Francisco. Her many accomplishments in fandom were crowned by her serving as Chairman of Bucconeer, the 1998 Worldcon in Baltimore. More recently she helped Japanese fandom bring the Worldcon to Japan in 2007 and served as their North American Agent.
   
• Agent Guest of Honor Jane Frank has appeared on myriad panel discussions at cons, and has lead docent tours through art shows. She was Guest Speaker at The Maryland Library Association Annual Conference (2003), was a Presenter at the Sixth Annual Roundtable "Science Fiction Art: Lessons for the Millennium, University of Maryland (2000), and was a Guest Speaker at the Science Fiction Information Forum, hosted by the Library of Congress Professional Association (1996). She's also been a "Behind the Scenes" volunteer at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, for the Star Wars exhibition, 1997-8, and consultant on the 2000, and 1998 editions of The Comic Art Price Guide (Arcturian Press, Kitchen Sink Press).
   
• Toastmaster and author John Scalzi first came to Chicago in 1987 from Los Angeles to attend the University of Chicago; upon arriving in the city, he was heard to remark how amazing it was to see buildings more than thirty years old. Since those days, Scalzi's gone on to write a number of science fiction novels, including the Hugo-nominated Old Man's War, the Norton-nominated Zoe's Tale, and the New York Times Best Seller, Fuzzy Nation. He is the owner/operator of the popular website http://whatever.scalzi.com/  He and his family currently live near Dayton, Ohio.

Chicon 7 website: http://www.chicon.org/  Chicon 7 information: P.O. Box 13, Skokie, IL 60076 

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