NASKCO Bots

Okay....I realize I missed yesterday, and I feel like a slacker about that, but my mind was a little unfocused yesterday/last night because someone I care about very much is having surgery this morning. But what's really weird looking back at my posts is that I don't have one for Sunday. Huh?? I could swear I wrote one but for the life of me I don't remember what it was about. Very strange...

So, on to a real blog post...
Yesterday was pretty busy after work. After I had to run to the store to replenish my empty refrigerator & pantry, my son had a parent meeting at school for his Robotics group. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the FIRST robotics competition, but my son got involved for the first time last year and he had a blast! Here is a link to the FIRST website:
FIRST Robotics Competition

He's doing it again this year and I'm wondering how he's going to pull it off with both hockey & a part time job. Their team is pretty awesome, in my opinion. They are a combination of the three main Nampa high schools: Nampa High School, Skyview High School and Columbia High School. (That's where they came up with the team name - it's the first two letters of each school.) Here is their web site:
NASKCO Bots

Collin is standing just behind and to the right of the robot, with the thumbs up. He was the driver of the robot last year and is planning to be the driver again this year. (They chose Collin as the driver because of his extensive experience with building & driving RC cars and his ability to drive the robot without running it into a wall.)

This is a great opportunity for these kids, as they learned last year. Their team won the Rookie Inspiration Award because the organizers were impressed how the three rival high schools came together to form a team of kids who worked so well together. This experience counts as internships for these kids also and at the parent meeting last night they announced that starting this year they will actually be able to letter in Robotics. The time they put in is absolutely amazing. They work on this Monday through Friday from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm. and on Saturday from 9:00 am until...well...whenever. There have been many nights when they didn't quit until after midnight. Then in late February/early March they travel to Oregon for 4 days for the competition.

A lot of local business (and not so local) have sponsored this team and made donations for parts, resources and fund raising. (Our local Dominoes has donated pizzas & soda to be given away by raffle at all of the home football games at each school. The winner & their friends get to sit on the sidelines of the game on two couches with five pizzas and two 2-liter bottles of soda.) If by chance any of you reading this would love to help out the team in some way, whether it be a monetary donation (big or small, every bit helps!!) or other resources donated, please contact me and I can give you details.

I'm sure I'll be keeping you all posted on what happens with this great team over the next 6 months or so.