The Giggle Pickles did it AGAIN! Back to back wins! The team is invited to Houston for the FTC World Competition in April and we would love your help! This is a huge opportunity to put Ferndale Middle School Robotics on the world stage.

The Giggle Pickles are an enthusiastic and elite group of 12 young innovators passionate about technology, engineering, and teamwork located in the Metro Detroit area.

On December 14th, our team won the Michigan State Championship (South-East region) as First Place Alliance Captains, for the second consecutive year. This earned them back-to-back titles in 2024 and 2025! With this win, the team has once again been invited to compete in the FIRST World Championship competition held in Houston, TX April 29th through May 1st. The Giggle Pickles are not just First in Michigan, they are currently ranked 6th in the World, and hold 4 of the Top 10 World Record scores for this season’s competition!

As a Michigan FTC team, our team of middle school students will be competing on the World stage against high school students from 30+ different countries worldwide, a challenge they met last year with confidence, poise, and determination.

Why the Giggle Pickles? A few highlights:

• Back-to-back FIRST Tech Challenge Michigan State Champions (2024 and 2025), with their most recent title earned the weekend of December 13–14.

• A strong showing at the FIRST Championship (Worlds) in Houston, TX in April 2025.

• Ranked 6th in the world out of more than 7,000 FTC teams.

• Each round begins with an autonomous scoring phase; Giggle Pickles are ranked 2nd in the World for autonomous scoring!

• Hold World Record Scores in 2nd, 5th, 6th, and 8th place — only the Top 10 are tracked.

• As noted, Michigan FTC teams are only middle school students, meaning our kids compete at Worlds against high school teams from 30+ countries.

• One of only two teams all season to defeat last year’s world champions, Up-A-Creek Robotics (Colorado), in a major qualifying-round upset.

As with any high-level STEM program, participation brings significant costs, including equipment, competition fees, and travel/lodging expenses. We rely heavily on sponsors and partnerships who believe in education, innovation, and developing future leaders.

On behalf of the Giggle Pickles and the Ferndale Robotics Boosters, we are seeking donations to help our children achieve their goals. Your support would directly impact our students by providing the resources they need to thrive and represent our community proudly while demonstrating world-class engineering and robotics and gaining meaningful experiences that continue to develop critical problem-solving, collaboration, and leadership abilities.