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Kainoa Caminos (from left) of Lokelani Intermediate School’s Kolohe Kids robotics team looks on as teammate Norman Montehermoso shares a high-five with a Mid-Pacific Institute team member (far right) while another Mid-Pacific Institute student looks on at the Hawaii VEX IQ Middle School State Championships in February on Oahu. The Kolohe Kids are heading to a world competition in Kentucky at the end of the month.

Maui County will be well-represented at a world robotics competition in Kentucky as at least four teams made up of elementary and intermediate school students will be heading to Louisville at the end of this month.

The Maui County schools, three from Molokai and one from Maui, qualified for the 2019 VEX World Championships through Hawaiian Electric Cos.’ Hawaii State VEX IQ Championships, which were held at St. Louis School on Oahu on Feb. 23 for middle schoolers, and at Sacred Hearts Academy on Oahu on March 2 for elementary students, according to a news release. The teams garnered various awards to qualify for the world competition.

Each year the VEX Robotics Competition presents an engineering challenge in the form of a game. Students, with guidance from their teachers and mentors, build innovative robots and compete, according to the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation website.

While the competition will be held from April 24 to May 1 at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, teams are still looking for donations to help with travel and tournament costs, which total in the thousands.

Teams say the entry fee alone is $975, which is still a deal for what is offered, but it adds up with other costs, which include airfare, lodging and even gifts for other students, which may be key chains and school logo items.

Kaunakakai Elementary School will have a robotics team heading to the 2019 VEX Robotics IQ Worlds Championship in Kentucky. They are Kailen Poepoe-Johnson (from left), Maesilyn Yuen and Kalauihi Kaai.

If there are no student sponsors or if donations are not enough, students and families may fundraise on their own. It also leads to some coaches using their credit cards to front the cost.

This includes Molokai robotics coach Edwin Mendija, who is taking his own Mendija Robotics Academy, which is made up of various Molokai intermediate-age school students. He is also the coach for two elementary-age students from Kualapu’u School on Molokai. But Mendija takes the costs and finances he has to front in stride.

“It’s a learning opportunity, that’s what it is,” he said.

Mendija’s Molokai High School robotics team, which is traveling to its own world competition in Texas next week, has exceeded its fundraising goal, with $12,725 on its GoFundMe page as of Wednesday. Maui High School is still seeking donations.

Kualapu’u School touts that its students, 6th-grader Masina Borden-Phillips and 5th-grader Kahiki Helm, will be the only Hawaiian language immersion students at the competition.

The school said at least one team from its school has made it to the world competition three years in a row.

As for Mendija Robotics, it is made up of students Nai’a Starkey, Chevy Bush and Shazen Bush.

The Friendly Isle also has Kaunakakai Elementary School’s Molokai Masters Team 11516D also heading to the competition.

“We are a low-budget team, and being that we were invited on short notice, we currently need to fundraise to cover the full budget,” the team’s GoFundMe page says. “Our goal is to raise $10,000 by April 20.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, they raised $1,620.

Hamau Howe, the school’s Parent Teacher Community networking coordinator, said the kids are booked to go but still need financial help.

“They are really excited,” she said of the team of three that will be going.

The gifts the students will bring include dolphin and turtle keychains and Kaunakakai School logo items.

The school’s team of seven robotics students recently returned from the VEX Robotics IQ Nationals Championship in Iowa, where they placed 10th, Howe said.

“They are still practicing,” Howe said of the students going to the world championships.

Howe is married to one of the coaches, Joseph Howe. The other coach is Andrea Yuen.

Those heading to the competition are students Kalau’ihi Kaai, Kailen Poepoe-Johnson and Maesilyn Yuen.

Hamau Howe said the students began working on their robot and have been practicing since the beginning of the school year, oftentimes after school and on weekends.

“These kids, they do such a fantastic job,” she added.

Also fresh off of a different competition, the Lokelani Robotics Kolohe Kids, just returned from the 2019 CREATE U.S. Open Robotics Championship VEX IQ for its Middle School Division nationals at the beginning of the month. There they captured the sportsmanship award and had a sixth-place alliance finish out of 100 middle school teams, said coach Iokepa Meno.

(Pukalani Elementary School was also awarded the STEM Project award at the competition.)

Lokelani Intermediate School Vice Principal Peter Hansen is the other coach. There are 11 students on the world team ranging from grades 6 though 8.

The team has conducted fundraisers such as a rummage sale, car wash and food sales, but still needs help.

Its GoFundMe link is at: www.gofundme.com/2019-vex-iq-worlds?member= 1763256.

To donate to the Mendija Robotics, through the nonprofit Molokai Community Service Council, see: www.gofundme.com/mendijaroboticstoworlds 2019.

To donate to Kualapuu’s robotics world fund, donate to the school’s nonprofit Ho’okako’o Corporation by visiting the school’s website at www.kualapuucharterschool.org. Click on students, then click on robotics.

To donate to Kaunakakai School’s team, see www.gofundme.com/kaunakakai-school-vex-robotics-team-to-worlds.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.


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