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Washington FIRST Robotics fundraiser brings high school students from across region

Medical Lake Circuit Breakers’ Micah Jones, 17, demonstrates how his team’s robot can launch a fake boulder during Washington FIRST Robotics Tuesday at its annual benefit, FIRST To Change The World, at the Red Lion Hotel at the Park in Spokane. (Tyler Tjomsland / The Spokesman-Review)
By Pia Hallenberg piah@spokesman.com(509) 459-5427

Students from high schools across the region packed up their robots and headed to Spokane for the Washington FIRST Robotics fundraiser on Tuesday.

Some had just returned from one of the largest robotics competitions in the world: the FIRST Championship in St. Louis.

There, West Valley High School’s team – named Chuck – placed third in the category of Defensive Robot.

“It’s a real-deal world championship,” said Jana Major, a West Valley parent and one of the mentors of the team. Also known as Momma Chuck, Major works with the students on the public relations and marketing parts of the competition. Her daughter, Ella Major, is on the team.

“We met teams from Australia, China and many other places,” Momma Chuck said. “It was very cool.”

The team from Garfield Palouse High School was sent off by a parade in its hometown.

“It’s our rookie year and everyone was so excited for us,” said Levi Teare, a student on Garfield Palouse’s Vikotics team. His teammate Kristian Gibler said they had a great trip.

“There were a lot of people there doing the same thing we do,” Gibler said. “We learned so much from the other teams.”

Micah Jones, who is on Medical Lake High School’s team, showed off the team’s affectionately named Short Circuit. The robot can grab a ball and shoot it low or high, break through a barrier and scoot under a heavy gate, all tasks that are part of the FIRST championship.

“Yes, we did short circuit quite a few times, but you just keep at it,” Jones said. “We have a very strong robot.”

Washington FIRST Robotics requires that the students run their robot teams as a business. They have to make a business plan, use social media and traditional marketing to get the word out, and raise money from sponsors.

Maria Sharman is on Lewis and Clark’s robotics team, which showed off the robot Caerbannog – named after the killer rabbit in a Monty Python movie – Tuesday morning.

Sharman said her team raised $20,000 and easily spent $3,000 on the robot alone.

“It costs $5,000 to enter the competition, but travel is probably the most expensive part of it all,” Sharman said. “We didn’t go to championships because we couldn’t take everyone and we don’t like to exclude anyone from the team.”

During the six weeks the team has to built the robot, Sharman said she easily spent 100 hours on the project.

“It’s a big commitment,” Sharman said, “but it’s fun.”