By Susan Motander
On the last Saturday in February, Monrovia schools sent five of its ten robotics teams to the LA Regional Championships held at Monrovia High. Though all the teams did well, the Suitbots from MHS won the Connect Award that qualifies them to move on to the next level of competition, the West Superregional Championship in Spokane.
The competition in Spokane, Washington is only a few days away, March 8-11, and the team needs to raise $10, 000 in the next week to fund their trip. To that end, a GoFundme account was established. To assist the team in moving forward, go to https://www.gofundme.com/suit-bots-2018
The other teams at the competition on Saturday the 24th also performed well. They were the Kings & Queens, Graveyard Shift both from MHS, Santa Fe’s Cougarrobotics Alpha and Clifton’s Hippie Bots. While the Suitbots qualified to move to the next round based on winner the Connect Award, theirs was not the only award won by a team from MUSD.
The Monrovia Team results were as follows:
– SuitBots: Division Finalist, winner of the Connect Award. Nominated for Design and Control Awards.
– Graveyard Shift: Division Finalist
– Hippiebots: Alliance Captain, Division Semifinalist
According to their advisor, Tom Dobson, three other teams from MUSD served as “mission critical volunteers (Team Loki, Droudnoughts and Spectrum). He also said that a great many other Monrovia High students gave up their Saturday to volunteer to help staff the event.
These young people gave freely of their time. The community needs to support them now.
