Indian Creek robotics team needs your help

<p>Members of and Indian Creek robotics team have spent hundreds of hours since January designing, building and competing with their robot, and they are just one competition away from earning a berth to state competition.</p><p>But even if they earn a spot at the state arena this weekend, they may not be able to go.</p><p>FRC Robotics Team 3180 needs at least $1,000 more in its coffers before it can take a team to the state competition, and robotics leaders are asking their community to rally around its students.</p><p>The team of about nine students at Indian Creek High School sold baked goods at a festival, applied for grants and looked for corporate sponsors to get the $5,000 needed to register for initial competitions and the supplies needed to build the robot.</p><p>&quot;It’s like a basketball team winning sectional and then regional and semistate and saying, ‘Nope, you cannot go, you can’t afford it,’&quot; coach Dwight Baxter said.</p><p>The state competition will be in Kokomo and has a $4,000 entry fee. The team would also need to find about $500 in estimated hotel and transportation fees that would need to be paid to allow the students to compete, Baxter said.</p><p>“If we are not prepared, if we do not have the funding to do that, it will keep us from being able to attend,&quot; he said.</p><p>Team members have earned some corporate sponsorships, but snagging enough sponsorships to sustain them through a season can be tough for the students, he said.</p><p>Trafalgar is a smaller community that does not have larger businesses and students do not always have what they need to ask for the sponsorships, such as a vehicle to get them to other towns that have businesses that may be able to help, Baxter said.</p><p>Also, businesses in other towns and cities are likely helping schools in those communities and have already agreed to other sponsorships for the year, he said.</p><p>“If we do not have an in with the company, it is really hard to get donations. They are asked by everybody,&quot; Baxter said.</p><p>The Indian Creek robotics team has struggled in past years. It did not have a leader at mid-season three years ago, and the team has had to turn down a state bid before because it couldn’t afford it, Baxter said.</p><p>“It is a really good experience for them. They get to compete against the best teams in the state,&quot; Baxter said. &quot;They spent all of this time working on it. It would be a shame if they qualify, that they don’t get to go.”</p><p>Donations to the team’s state fund can be made at: <a href="http://gofundme.com/mechalosaurs-go-to-state">gofundme.com/mechalosaurs-go-to-state</a>.</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="If you go" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Hundreds of robotics students will be at Center Grove High School this weekend for a FIRST Robotics competition.</p><p>Since the game was revealed back in January, students have been brainstorming and drawing up designs for robots that will compete at several events this season.</p><p>Teams had about six weeks to build their robots, and now the competition season is underway. This event is the last in a series of three competitions that qualify teams to compete at the state championship, where teams will qualify to move on to the world championships.</p><p>The competition is scheduled for 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. today, and 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday at Center Grove High School, 2717 S. Morgantown Road, Greenwood. Admission is free and the competition is open to the public.</p><p>The following local schools are competing:</p><p><ul><li>Red Alert from Center Grove High School</li><li>MECHAlosaurs from Indian Creek High School</li><li>Wired Warriors from Whiteland Community High School</li></ul></p>[sc:pullout-text-end]