ROBERT PIERCE

   • Leader & Times

Robotics is a popular and successful activity for many young people in the area, with many teams in the region taking part in the worlds competition every year.

While those teams achieve success regularly, they do struggle to get the funding to make the trip to the competition. The Heritage 4-H Club, a club made up of homeschooled students, is one of those clubs, and after having to come up with that funding in a short period of time, club members and parents have found a way to be proactive about that issue through fundraising events throughout the year.

One such event is coming up Saturday, July 25, with Heritage Robotics hosting its 5K Run & Walk at Liberal’s Mid-America Air Museum. Heritage member Faith Myers said there is also a 1-mile category, and participants can walk or run the routes in their category.

“You don’t have to worry about food because we’ll be serving hot dogs,” she said.

“The club has been really generous, and they’ll be donating a lot of the things that go with the hot dogs,” club leader Carrington Myers said. “That’ll be nice.”

Carrington said the event is the start of fundraising for Heritage Robotics.

“It’s something for the community to get involved with,” she said. “We had some ideas for more fundraisers, but with the success of the 5Ks in the community, we thought it would be fun to try it for our group too.”

Carrington said Heritage has three robotics teams starting with the Discover team, which features younger children.

“They use the Duplo blocks,” she said. “It’s more fun just starting them out. We have our Explorer team, which is ages 7 to 9, and the Challenge group that does the main robotics competition. We have at least 20 in our robotics club. This is just a branch off the homeschool group.”

Fellow leader Mirella Buchman said creating teams in the Heritage Club was a way to get children involved in resources already available in the community. She added the Liberal Recreation Department, which has coordinated local robotics for years, has been very helpful in helping Heritage Robotics get started.

“They’ve let us practice at the facility, and we borrow their LEGOs from them for the kids to be able to participate,” she said.

Through other robotics teams, Buchman said many of the Heritage members have participated in the activity for at least four to five years.

“We just decided this year to make it into its own club,” she said.

Two years ago, Heritage Robotics took teams to the worlds competition, and Buchman said leaders and members found themselves in a rush to get the funding to afford the trip.

“The entry fee for nationals is $2,000, and we had two weeks to come up with $2,000,” she said.

With this in mind, Buchman said the Heritage Club wanted to be a little more proactive this year.

“Last year, our Challenge team placed second in the robotics competition,” she said. “We saw we maybe have a chance to go to nationals this year. The kids did really well, so we’re hoping to make it to nationals, and that would help alleviate that stress to come up with $2,000 in a week, two-week turnaround time and also maybe eventually to have our own LEGOs and not having to borrow from everybody.”

Another purpose of making a robotics team, Buchman said, is to be able to have the funds for these needs.

“That way, when they do qualify for nationals, we already have the money,” she said. “We don’t need to fundraise for this. It’s to make it more formal. When people donate, they know ‘I’m donating to this. I’m not just donating some random person.’”

With this being the first edition of the 5K Run & Walk, Carrington said hopes are for at least 75 participants, but she said more participation would be ideal and welcome.

“That’s what we’re planning on, but we were told this last week to bring the expectation up to 120 based on the other runs Teresa (Randle) has been organizing,” she said. “She’s been doing a lot for our club.”

Heritage member Griffin Duer said robotics is popular amongst the club, but hopes are for more members to join all the age groups.

Carrington said money raised through the Run & Walk will be used in several ways.

“It’ll go toward registration fees, T-shirts, banners,” she said. “If we raise enough, travel expenses, hotels depending on how far we get in competition. If we don’t use the funds this year, we’ll use them the years after.”

Registration for the Run & Walk is $25 for the 5K and $15 for the 1-mile. Online registration is available through July 23 on the Heritage Robotics Facebook page. Same day registration starts at 9 a.m. July 25 at MAAM.

Participants can also bring their furry friends with them and enjoy music, food, fun and giveaways. Finisher medals will also be awarded along with top finisher prizes.

Buchman said those needing more information can get so through several means.

“They can always message the group, and we’ll get back to them as soon as we can,” she said. “We have a Web site that’s posted on our Facebook group. There’s a lot of information on there if they have any questions