Spotlight on Teams
Pennies from Heaven ─ or, Rather, from Hebron, Connecticut
Photos contributed by FLL Team 1875
Hurricane Ike slammed into Galveston Island in September 2008. Everyone was evacuated while the storm washed over the island. School was suspended for a month. However, even when school resumed, life was not back to normal. While the Galveston Independent School District worked through emergency priorities like damaged schools, reduced student populations, and the lost bus fleet, the children returned to find life very different than before the Hurricane. They had lost their schools, their homes, their friends and classmates, and for some, all the hard work they had put into preparing for the Lone Star FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Championship Tournament. It looked like Ike would also dash the dreams of these Galveston students. The District canceled more than 25 teams right after the storm. In the coming weeks, they decided that only six teams could compete.
FLL Partners around the world responded when Karen Cohen, the FLL Affiliate Partner in the impacted region, let them know of the post-hurricane devastation and how it affected their FLL teams. Besides well wishes, monetary help soon started to pour in from every corner of the country.
One team in particular went above and beyond to help. In a true example of Gracious ProfessionalismTM, FLL Team 1875 “RHAMbots” from RHAM Middle School in Hebron, Connecticut, raised more than $2,200, to assist FLL teams that were impacted by Hurricane Ike.
Through their efforts, 357 rolls of pennies (totaling $178.50) were collected and “matched” with dollar bills, as part of the school’s “Penny Wars” initiative, where teams earn points for pennies and dollar bills that are valued at the amount of pennies needed to make the green money. In addition, teams penalize each other by putting silver change into each other’s bins.
“The amount gets pretty impressive in the end. We hope that Texas FLL will get good use out of this money,” said the team’s coach, Becky Sinosky, who added that an additional $200 was raised at the state Championship Tournament to assist the Texas teams.
With this help, six Galveston teams were able to compete in the January 10 competition and 90 kids whose teams had been canceled were given the VIP treatment at the tournament. Giant-sized pizzas, backstage access, and commemorative shirts touting the slogan, “I made a personal Climate Connection with Ike in 2008,” made these kids feel a part of the festivities. The theme of the entire season was Climate Connections and the irony was not lost to anyone. Cohen said, “We wanted people to feel connected. It just takes a little effort to make a big difference in someone’s life. We hope our efforts will keep the kids interested in robotics and technology next year and for years to come and let them know that people everywhere care about them.”