DI-Pins Collections History

The infamous Dr. Frank (Rainbow Mustache) started the DI-Pins Collections starting in 2000 (D2K) when DI held its first Global Finals. Those early-year pin collections are shown in the display cases he collected and organized for DI pin collectors to see and enjoy. Below are descriptions added to the first two-years collections imparting some of the original DI pin trading info/wisdom.

2000 The First Year of DI, or D2K as it came to be called.

The Destination Imagination® (DI) program was born in the summer of 1999. The organization, Destination Imagination, Inc., merged with the OM Association Inc. and Destination 2000 (or D2K as it came to be called) was the first Global Finals. This was held in Ames, Iowa on the campus of Iowa State University, May 24-27, 2000.

D2K was the inaugural year for DI pins. The pins are organized alphabetically by State Affiliate. Next come the International Affiliate pins, the Challenge pins, sponsor pins, and special pins. Regional and team pins are grouped with their State Affiliate pins.

The “Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Doing To Excess” award for the most pins clearly went to Texas that year. Each TX region and many individual teams had pins that were traded. California’s pin glowed in the dark and the Iowa Railroad Crossing was the first DI “blinky” pin. Many pins represented the continuation of longstanding traditions: the Missouri spider, the Mississippi belle, the Massachusetts puzzle set, the Oregon beaver, the South Dakota dream catcher, and the Wisconsin Cow to name a few.

There were 8 states that formed completely new affiliate organizations with the birth of DI. These were Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Kentucky, and North Carolina. They were represented by the “Small but Mighty Satellites” pin.

The rather large D2K Disco pin was given to participants in the Team Manager and Official’s competition. In the spirit of collaboration, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania created the Ma and Pa pin set. This represents a “DINified” version of Grant Wood’s painting “American Gothic”.

Finally, mention must be made of the famous Libya DI pin. Early in the week, several team members were recruited by my family to convince me of the existence of a rare team pin from Libya. Rumor of this pin began to grow as the week progressed, reaching epidemic proportions. Several “creative” versions of this pin began to surface and were highly sought after (by me).

One version of this pin has been included in the collection.

2001 The 2nd Year of DI, or D2K.1 as it came to be called.

D2K.1 was the designation for Destination Imagination’s second Global Finals. This was held on the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville, TN from May 23-26, 2001. Pin trading was again a major activity with a greater variety available than at D2K. Texas once again got the award for the most pins with Colorado the runner-up in that category.

In the “New Kids on the Block” category were Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Kentucky, and Washington, D.C., all of which had debut pins at D2K.1. New York and California created a “friendship” set of pins that fit together to form a message.

Wisconsin had a 2-part cow and Louisiana had a 2-part crawdaddy that was made to be interchangeable, thus forming a “Cowdaddy”. Glitter was the craze at D2K.1 with a number of sparkly pins.

The “Committed” pin was actually used to raise money for the VOMBO scholarship fund. It was sold to supporters on the DI, VOMBO, and SOC Internet lists and brought to D2K.1 for trading purposes.

The most poignant pin was the Texas pin dedicated to Dolly Vogel. Dolly was the manager of a team from the Southeast 6 region. She died of cancer before seeing her team fulfill its dream of attending Global Finals. The pin was created and traded in her memory.

The Destination Imagination™ D2K pin collection is on loan from Frank Begun and his family. The Curacao pin is on loan from Bill Cole.

Pin trading became the most popular activity outside of team challenges.

As the years went on pin-trading became extremely popular, fun, and the most popular activity to do outside of team challenges.