Garfield Robotics Team Needs Help Getting To World Championships

SEATTLE, WA - Unlike building a robot, the math on this one is simple.

The 17 members of the Garfield High School robotics team, 4042 Nonstandard Deviation needs to raise $15,000 to get to the FIRST Tech Challenge world championship in Houston this month. To raise that much, they are asking for locals to donate whatever they can toward a fundraiser.

Add it all up, and you might be helping the Garfield team become the best in the world.

This school year, 4042 Nonstandard Deviation has become a top team from the West Coast, winning the Rockwell Collins Innovate Award at the state championship, and winning the FIRST Tech Challenge West super-regional.

"4042's 15 members and two mentors have worked extremely hard to qualify for their first World Championship ever, but we need your help to get to Houston. Sending a large robotics team to a four-day event has significant costs, including airfare, hotel rooms, food and registration fees," team boosters wrote on the GoFundMe fundraiser page.

The team is competing with a handmade relic-recovery robot (see video above), which will compete against robots from other teams in a live game at the world championship. But that's not all. To win, teams have to create a brand for their robot, raise money, and demonstrate teamwork skills.

Can you help send the team to Houston? As of Monday morning, the team had raised about $8,000 of the $15,000 needed to get there. The competition begins on April 18.

Image via GoFundMe

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