Team 2130 bound for St. Louis |
| April 8, 2013 |
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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. |