Please help us start our robotics team

My name is Joseph, I’m going into my Junior year at BMHS. My friends Evan Alberti, Bobby Kinsella and Aidan Le and I are starting our own VEX EDR Robotics team. We are all hardworking straight A students. We believe by competing in robotics competitions not only do we get hands on, interactive experiences but it will also help us with our college and careers in the future.

We are a group of friends who have been working together for over 4 years. Our parents have always supported us, and we feel proud of ourselves because we were able to achieve great things. I would like to tell you a little bit about robotics and why you should help us.

When we were in middle school, we had the great opportunity to join the Locke monster robotics team. This team helped us all in so many ways by building skills in problem- solving, troubleshooting, research and development, intervention and innovation. It also gave us a place to belong in those sometimes awkward middle school years. We had great mentors and made many great friends. Our teams won many awards such as skills, excellence, tournament champions and made it to worlds robotics competition in Kentucky twice.

In VEX Robotics students are given a new challenge annually, and must design, build, program, and drive a robot to complete the challenge as best as they can. The robotics teams that consistently display exceptional mastery in all of these areas will eventually progress to the VEX Robotics World Championship.

We love robotics so much that we volunteer with younger students to help them develop the love of robotics as well. It’s great to see them try out their ideas and learn from their mistakes to finally achieve their goals. Seeing them get excited and doing well makes us even more passionate about robotics.

We were very disappointed when we got to high school to find out they do not have a VEX EDR Robotics team, they only have first robotics which is very different. VEX EDR Robotics offers a community that is unlike anything else we have experienced and without the schools support we won’t be able to experience it. We tried really hard to get the school to start a VEX EDR team but it proved to be almost impossible.

My freshman year I was lucky enough to be able to join a friend who has since graduated. We had a privately funded team and I worked with him for the year. We did well and qualified for the world robotic competition once again in Kentucky. Unfortunately, covid happened and everything shut down so we weren’t able to compete. Last year Covid stopped competitions. As a Junior I am looking to start our own team.

In order to do this we are looking for $3000, this money will allow us to buy all supplies needed to make a robot, uniforms, as well as pay registration, and entry fees. Our parents have made the commitment to over see and help us distribute our funds so that we can get the most out of all efforts of others.

We believe if you help our team it won’t just be helping us but it also will be helping us to promote future generations to participate in stem activities. We thank you for your time, and any help you could provide would be very much appreciated!