Lightning Robotics Information

For years, Lightning Robotics has supported our community through volunteering, fundraising and spreading the message of FIRST. We have been involved in the Plymouth Rotary Chicken Dinner for the past thirteen years: an event to raise funds for the Plymouth Rotary Club, helping them to support many individuals and activities in our community. Last year, our team went to a local food bank and gave 360 hours of service. Our team believes in assisting in a wide range of service opportunities. Since 2008, we have helped senior citizens with their fall yard cleanup at the annual United Way Make A Difference Day. We strive to support other causes, as well. One of our team's biggest events, the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life of Canton brings together over 20,000 people for 24-hours of united fundraising. Considering that 7.6 million individuals die every year from cancer, our team wants to be part of the fight to end it. Over the past 11 years, we have raised over $37,000 for the cause by soliciting donations and offering participants the opportunity to drive our robots in exchange for a donation. Spreading our influence is a team-wide effort as we all come together to make FIRST loud. We have taken part in the Ypsilanti Heritage Festival each August since 2003 where we promote FIRST by demonstrating our robots along with other local FRC teams. To spark interest in FIRST and STEM, we do many demonstrations at grade-schools, colleges, and businesses. In 2013 after our seniors graduated, they took our robot to 15 elementary schools in our district and demonstrated for 6000 kids exposing them to FIRST and engineering. In the summer, our outreach includes robot demonstrations during week long STEM workshops for elementary to middle school students at Schoolcraft College. Generating interest extends to our main sponsor, Bosch, where we host an annual Bring Your Robot to Work Day. We have students go to Bosch, and showcase our hard work that would not have been possible without their generous contributions. The ...