Team 2130 bound for St. Louis
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April 8, 2013 |
By Sally Balcaen
The results for the FIRST robotics competition
in Cheney, Washington, have come in and, once
again, FRIST team 2130 has performed
outstandingly.
In the final elimination rounds, FIRST team 2130
placed third overall. While this is a great
achievement, the greatest surprise was that the
judges selected the Alpha + as winners of the
Engineering Inspiration Award, which is highly
coveted.
The Engineering Inspiration award celebrates
outstanding success in advancing respect and
appreciation for engineering within a team’s
school and community.
The judges at Cheney felt that Alpha + Team 2130
merited this award with their robot’s design.
As recipients of the award, Alpha + Team 2130
has the opportunity to compete in the World
Championships taking place in St. Louis,
Missouri, at the Edward Jones Dome from April
24-27. The best robotics teams from around the
nation and even the world will be in attendance.
Members of the team are very excited and are
eagerly waiting their departure in three weeks!
More details and pictures are coming soon!
Publisher's Note: The
progress this team has made in its short history
is truly astonishing, and a credit not only to
the talented students who comprise the team, but
to science teacher Ed Katz, who has fought tooth
and nail to find and obtain the funding needed
to keep the dream alive, and all the amazingly
talented mentors in this community who have
stepped up and shared their skills and
expertise.
A great credit to Boundary County as a whole in
an entirely different arena; one that
encompasses multiple disciplines; science,
engineering, business, public relations and
more. These kids ain't just nerds.
News Bonners Ferry has benefitted; I've been
able to publish the words of Team 2130 reporter
Sally Balcaen, and the pictures of team
photographer Sarah Schuman, and to offer a
little advice here and there. That's what I call
it. They call it "mentoring."
I call it a remarkable privilege to have their
bylines, and their work, appear on these pages.
I'm the beneficiary of their talent, yet they
thank me.
They call it "experience" and "opportunity."
I thank everyone who has read or seen what
they're capable of, thanks to these pages. I now
pose a challenge.
The cost to get the team to St. Louis, to give
them the chance to show the world the
talent of our students and our community, are
great, especially to the team members, who have
to raise air-fare and lodging on their own.
There is no line item in the school budget for
Alpha + Team 2130.
Donations are welcome, as I can personally
attest, but time is short. To give these
students and this amazing program the
opportunity to reach its potential, I challenge
and encourage every business, whether the
smallest local business or the large corporation
doing business in Boundary County; support this
program in any way you can.
Make a donation, hold a fundraiser, sponsor a
team member. Become a mentor.
This is a situation in which every bit will
help.
It would be a shame to this community to see any
one of the members have to stay home next month
due to lack of community support.
For my part, I gave a small donation to the team
early in the season, and a stipend to Sally and
Sarah as a way to say "thanks." I was going to
endow a small scholarship to both for their help
in providing me high school news and pictures,
but I've changed my mind.
A scholarship would have had strings attached.
The first being "you have to use it for
college."
Instead, I'm just going to go to the high school
in early May to drop off two more checks, in
their names, that they can do with what they
will.
I thought to provide them an incentive, a reason
to strive.
I've learned instead that I'm the mentored; give
an opportunity, no matter how small, and these
kids will grab it and run.
I was a clerk in the Army, writing awards. In
every one, no matter how great or small, I
wrote. "and reflect great credit upon ..."
Alpha Team 2130 has already reflected "great
credit upon itself, on Bonners Ferry High School
and the Boundary County community as a whole."
To learn how you can help, call the high school
at (208) 267-3149. |
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