By Melissa Wagoner
Big things are happening in the Butte Creek Elementary School Robotics Program.
“[W]e have four teams leaving for the CREATE U.S. Open (Nationals) in Council Bluffs, Iowa on April 2,” head coach Stacy Boost said. “We have one team who earned a spot at Worlds in Louisville, Kentucky in late April.”
The after-school program currently consists of more than 25 students who meet at least two days a week from September to April in preparation for seven competitions throughout the region. The most recent competition, held at Butte Creek on March 2, was the State Championship.
“It was amazing. The parking lot was packed, the gym was packed, the cafeteria was packed,” Boost enthused. “It was so fun to sit back and watch the incredible atmosphere of kids of all ages, working, cheering, doing their best, supporting each other when things were not working out well, running to their parents to share scores, etc.”
Butte Creek competes in VEX IQ Robotics which spans science, technology, engineering and math. Each competition involves three separate forms of this system as well as presentations before the judge.
“Teams really need to be honest and good communicators to make a plan that involves scoring points without getting in each other’s way,” Boost said.
The program is funded almost exclusively by a $75 membership fee each child pays to join. This amount, however, comes nowhere near covering the costs of materials and travel to tournaments – a fact that became painfully clear to Boost when a previous team was forced to forfeit its place in the VEX Worlds Competition in 2015.
Now a new team once again has the opportunity to compete and Boost, as well as fellow coaches and volunteers, are working hard to get them there.
To raise $17,000 to send the teams to the first competition on April 2, the children have designed their own vinyl designs for shirts and other merchandise with their in-house vinyl cutter and 3D printer. They have also been holding bake sales and selling robot jewelry.
“We would love any support we can garner,” Boost said. “We are the only school to compete in the elementary division of Worlds from Oregon… how cool is that?”
