A team of imaginative students at Elrod School is demonstrating yet another arena of their creativity - and their willingness to work.

Elrod's sixth-grade team won a trip to global finals competition for Destination Imagination, which will draw students from around the world to Knoxville, Tenn., May 23-29.

To pay for that trip, the students are cleaning out horse paddocks and shoveling the manure into bags for use as natural fertilizer.

In keeping with the Destination ImagiNation custom of emphasizing the initials "DI" in team competition categories, they're labeling the product "Fer-DI-lizer."

They're also carrying out a long list of other fund-raising projects in an effort to share the financial load with their parents.

Earlier this spring, team members Cherise Stivers, Nicole Kelly, Andrew Gregory, Tristan Crosswhite, DJ McNutt, Keifer Wills and JT Buckley won the Montana championship for middle-grade students in a category called Sudden Serendipity.

It's the third year in a row that an Elrod sixth-grade team has won state and the chance to travel to Knoxville.

To cover their expenses, each team members and the team coach needs to raise about $1,200.

The team members already have spent hundreds of hours solving the Destination ImagiNation problem they selected and began working on last October.

Besides the Fer-DI-lizer, the students are:

. selling raffle tickets for $1 each for a handmade quilt;

. staffing concession stands;

. selling tie-dyed T-shirts, candles and Tupperware;

. sponsoring a sixth-grade dance at Linderman School;

. holding a silent auction and bingo night at the Elks Club on May 21;

. conducting car washes;

. selling raffle tickets for an extreme home makeover; local businesses have been donating anywhere from a few gallons of paint to blinds, door knobs, lumber, light fixtures and more.

Cash donations always are appreciated.

But it's the Fer-DI-lizer that is creating the biggest stir.

Trina Stivers, a team mom and Destination ImagiNation booster, said it's important for the community to know the students are willing to work for their trip.

A week ago, they sold the bagged fertilizer on the corner of Center and Fifth Avenue West in Kalispell.

Cenex Feed Store donated the first 100 large poly bags, and recommended different kinds of manure that will make the best fertilizer.

It's going for $2.50 a bag. And if anyone wants to recycle a bag after it's empty, team members would appreciate the re-donation so they can refill it and avoid having to purchase new bags.

If sales go well, Stivers said, the original fertilizer source could run out. Anyone with a pile they'd like shoveled up can give the team a call. Depending on what type of feed the manure source was given, the team may take your pile off your hands.

Delivery, for a small charge, is available to anyone interested in purchasing a few bags of Fer-DI-lizer. Call Cherise Stivers at 755-3216.

Reporter Nancy Kimball may be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at [email protected]