La Grange Fifth-Graders Win Innovation Award

LA GRANGE, IL — La Grange's Team Ro-BOJAM received the Innovation Project Award in the First Lego League competition at Burr Ridge Middle School on Saturday. The members of the team are fifth-graders from Cossitt Elementary School in La Grange, but the team is not associated with the school. They have been meeting two or three times a week since September to prepare for the event. Now, they are advancing to the state championship in late January.

The team's members are Braxton Bonnevier, Oscar Katz, Joe D’Antonio, Andrew Shepard and Max Colomb. Their coach is Colin Flueck of Western Springs, a junior at Lyons Township High School. The students' parents also helped coach the team.

Their innovation project provided a proposed solution for soccer and baseball game and practice cancellations at Sedgwick Park by installing field drainage tiles and an underground system allowing for water harvesting and reuse, according to a news release. The fifth-graders presented their proposal to La Grange officials.