Community Action HouseAt Community Action House, we are able to support the community by sorting and packing groceries for families in the community. Community Action house is an organization that focuses on providing area families and individuals with food, clothing, shelter and the opportunity to build the necessary skills to achieve a indpendence and stability.
Kids Food BasketKids Food Basket is a not for profit organization that provide meals to students that do not have access to three meals a day from home. Their goal is to attack childhood hunger in West Michigan. We have packed lunches for students and organize the organization’s food pantry. This has been an easy way to give back to our community that has a big impact on kids in our area. For 2019, we are finding new ways to participate with the organization. We are starting our own lunch bag outreach. To help bring smiles to students faces, we will be decorating the lunch bags that are handed out to the students.
Vacation Bible SchoolA great opportunity for us to show off the robot is to take it to different area Vacation Bible Schools. Vacation Bible School is a day camps for K-5th grade students. Since we have team members volunteering at these events, they invite the robotics team out to run demonstrations for the students. We have brought both our High School and Middle School robots to these events.
Several years ago, we had a student on the team that really enjoyed volunteering at Compassionate Heart Ministries in Holland. She was always excited to share her experiences there and got the whole team involved with volunteering. We enjoy going to Compassionate Heart to hang out with the students there and look forward to playing games, coloring and sharing some laughs. Compassionate Heart is a safe place for young adults with physical and mental handicaps to spend time.
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Relay For LifeIn 2015, one of our team mentors was diagnosed with Cancer. To show our support for him and his family, our team decided to partner with the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life of Holland/Zeelend. The Relay For Life event is a six hour fundraiser with the goal of raising money to find a cure for cancer. Our team fundraises for the organization prior to the events as well as shows up to participate day of the event. During the event, students, mentors, and team supporters take turns walking laps about the event track to show that no one walks alone with cancer. Each year, we have donated at least $2,000 to the American Cancer Society.
Tulip TimeOur biggest community event is participating in the Holland Tulip Time parade. The Tulip Time festival brings on 700 thousand people to Holland each year. The big highlight of the festival is the Saturday Parade. This is a two-mile parade route through the center of Holland. Thousands of people come out for the parade. Since 2012, Team 107 and Team 74 have collaborated on a parade float. We have taken home several of the top awards for our float designs, including:
In 2018, we wanted to get more West Michigan FIRST Teams involved to really show off to the community what the areas schools have accomplished. We were excited to have Team 85 and Team 5927 join us for a four robot float. Participating in Tulip Time is a fun and great way to share FIRST with a large crowd of people. For 2019, we are excited to be getting even more involved with the Tulip Time festival. Our team will be organizing and hosting a Science and Technology event at this year’s festival. We will be taking over the festivals Kinderplaats, which is held specifically for younger children to venture out to. We will have both FRC and FTC fields setup with robots running and available for the kids to drive. This will be a new addition for us and our Tulip Time involvement.
Compassionate Heart |