Keaau Robotics VEX World Tournament
Donation protected
We are the LunaTechs and PunaTechs robotics teams from Kea’au Elementary and Kea’au Middle School. Imagine a bunch of crazy, energetic kids who are enthusiastic about everything…that’s US! Our dream is to return to Louisville, Kentucky to participate in the 2017 VEX Worlds Challenge. This premiere event, presented by the Northrop Grumman Foundation, brings together top robotics teams under one roof to participate with the best teams from around the world.
We are asking for your financial support in helping to make our dream come true once more. We have worked hard all season and are almost there. On Feb. 20th at the 2017 aio Hawaii Convention Center HCES State Middle VEX IQ Championship, our PunaTechs middle school 5432B team won the Teamwork Challenge Award and team 5432A won the Championship Robot Skills Award, which qualified our team to go to the WORLDS!
Let us tell you a little bit about ourselves. We are part of the Kea’au Robotics Inspire program, an after school STEM-based (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) program. Our program envisions a Kea’au K-12 STEM robotics program where students mentor other students, helping to instill proper engineering practices from an early age while learning key STEM principles and robotics concepts. This year we hosted a Kea’au/Pahoa complex VEX IQ league, which included private and charter schools, where the “coolness” of robotics and the excitement of head to head competition inspired and engage participating students to pursue STEM careers.
Our program consists of identified Gifted and Talented students in grades 4-8 . This is our third year in competing in the VEX IQ Challenge. We meet every day after school at Kea’au Elementary from 2:30-5:00 PM. We also voluntarily meet on weekends, holidays, school breaks and during the summer because we LOVE robotics and have FUN working together.
Our dedication and hard work have helped to pave the way towards reaching our dream. With the support of the Hawaii Community Foundation fund, we were able to participate in numerous competitions:
-Sept to Dec.- Kea'au Robotics Inspire League
-Oct- Pan Pacific Championship
-Nov-East Hawaii Vex IQ Championship
-Dec-West Hawaii Vex IQ Championship
-Jan- TMT Vex IQ Challenge
-Feb- aio HCES State Elementary and Middle School Vex IQ Challenge
Overall we have won a total of over 20 different awards this year and we are striving to always improve our performance. As you can see, we have put in a lot of hours and hard work to reach our goal. We humbly ask that you consider our request for financial support to help send our team to the 2017 VEX Worlds Challenge.
Travel Budget Information:
At this time we estimate that it will cost $1,200 per student for airfare, lodging, meals, and transportation
Round trip from Big Island to Kentucky per person is about $1,000
Meals for the week will be about $200
Lodging for a student is about $185 per day (we are looking to stay in a vacation rental nearby as oppose to a hotel to save on meals & to have more of a family feel to our trip)
We appreciate any monetary assistance that you can provide; whether you can provide funding for 1 student’s meals or 1 night’s stay. Every bit will count towards our goal.
Mahalo nui loa (Thank you very much) and malama pono (take care)
We are asking for your financial support in helping to make our dream come true once more. We have worked hard all season and are almost there. On Feb. 20th at the 2017 aio Hawaii Convention Center HCES State Middle VEX IQ Championship, our PunaTechs middle school 5432B team won the Teamwork Challenge Award and team 5432A won the Championship Robot Skills Award, which qualified our team to go to the WORLDS!
Let us tell you a little bit about ourselves. We are part of the Kea’au Robotics Inspire program, an after school STEM-based (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) program. Our program envisions a Kea’au K-12 STEM robotics program where students mentor other students, helping to instill proper engineering practices from an early age while learning key STEM principles and robotics concepts. This year we hosted a Kea’au/Pahoa complex VEX IQ league, which included private and charter schools, where the “coolness” of robotics and the excitement of head to head competition inspired and engage participating students to pursue STEM careers.
Our program consists of identified Gifted and Talented students in grades 4-8 . This is our third year in competing in the VEX IQ Challenge. We meet every day after school at Kea’au Elementary from 2:30-5:00 PM. We also voluntarily meet on weekends, holidays, school breaks and during the summer because we LOVE robotics and have FUN working together.
Our dedication and hard work have helped to pave the way towards reaching our dream. With the support of the Hawaii Community Foundation fund, we were able to participate in numerous competitions:
-Sept to Dec.- Kea'au Robotics Inspire League
-Oct- Pan Pacific Championship
-Nov-East Hawaii Vex IQ Championship
-Dec-West Hawaii Vex IQ Championship
-Jan- TMT Vex IQ Challenge
-Feb- aio HCES State Elementary and Middle School Vex IQ Challenge
Overall we have won a total of over 20 different awards this year and we are striving to always improve our performance. As you can see, we have put in a lot of hours and hard work to reach our goal. We humbly ask that you consider our request for financial support to help send our team to the 2017 VEX Worlds Challenge.
Travel Budget Information:
At this time we estimate that it will cost $1,200 per student for airfare, lodging, meals, and transportation
Round trip from Big Island to Kentucky per person is about $1,000
Meals for the week will be about $200
Lodging for a student is about $185 per day (we are looking to stay in a vacation rental nearby as oppose to a hotel to save on meals & to have more of a family feel to our trip)
We appreciate any monetary assistance that you can provide; whether you can provide funding for 1 student’s meals or 1 night’s stay. Every bit will count towards our goal.
Mahalo nui loa (Thank you very much) and malama pono (take care)
Organizer and beneficiary
Kristen Suwa
Organizer
Hilo, HI
Merry Blechta
Beneficiary
