Students and families gathered for the annual pancake breakfast in February to help raise funds for the North Union Robotics program. While the district’s teams have been very successful this year and in previous years, district officials said it can be expensive to handle competition fees and travel expenses.
(Photo submitted)
—
In a few weeks, North Union will send another group of students to the VEX World Championship in Dallas, Texas.
While the qualification brings a lot of pride to the district and to the students who participate, Coach Kristi Matlack said success comes with a high price. Literally.
“Our program is very well supported by our district and our district really steps up,” she said. “But there are all kinds of costs and registration fees. The more they advance, the more fees there are to pay. And it’s more per team. It costs a lot so the teams have to pay a lot.”
Matlack said while it’s great to have so many teams that qualify for events, traveling, especially out of state, can be a difficult thing to manage.
“We have to pay costs obviously, but we also don’t want to make this a financial burden on our kids and families,” she said.
The overall goal for the program is $30,000 per year as Matlack said it costs about $1,800 per team for the world event plus all the additional costs for traveling to and from competition events throughout the season.
North Union had 23 teams that started the season in October, which is about average for the program. Generally, there are about 100 students making up 20-24 teams. This year, teams included eight from the high school, five from seventh and eighth grade, four from sixth grade and six elementary school teams.
VEX releases the year’s challenge around the time of the world championship and students get to work on how to build and program their robots for the season. Once competition season starts, teams can compete two times a month. That begins a season of travel and investment.
Matlack said when the team raises money, both the championship opportunities and the overall program for the year are factored in.
“Now that we’re winding down for the season, really before and after the school year, we have to already look at next year,” she said. “(Students) work all year to raise the funds.”
As an example from this year, Matlack said, just to go to state, each of the 16 teams had to pay $200 plus airfare, hotel and travel/van costs once at the event location. That was before qualifying for world.
There are fundraising events throughout the year but the annual pancake breakfast always helps out a lot, she added. This year, the event brought 350 supporters to the breakfast and silent auction.
For qualifying events, they can be local or away in other cities around the state and students work regularly to get better.
“They reevaluate after every competition, constantly trying to make it better,” Matlack said. “Maybe they got it right the first time and take that forward to the next thing, but they’re always trying to improve.”
Of those teams, all six will be going to the world championship: the high school team, 6008C – C U Later, middle school teams 28102A – Fire Gals, 28102B – Turn It Up 4810A – Atlas and 4810G – G-Force; and elementary school team, 28101D – Techno Tigers.
While the program is expensive, the benefits outweigh the costs, Matlack said and the proof is in the putting. This will be the 12th year in a row the team has qualified for the world championship. That puts the team in the top 25% in the state and the top 5% of the world. There are 30,000 teams worldwide.
“It’s a pretty awesome thing to see year after year. They continue to set goals and succeed,” Matlack said. “It’s difficult, but no matter what they find a way to do it.”
Those interested in supporting the teams can still do so through the end of April. Matlack said people can do it through the high school and just note her or the robotics team.