County Agriculture Sponsors Robotics to Worlds

MMS STEM Robotics News Release

The Maui County agricultural community is the latest proud sponsor of the Molokai VEX IQ League and the Molokai Robotics League in their vie for national and international competitions.

The Maui County Farm Bureau, Maui County Ag Festival, and Maui Family and Friends of Agriculture awarded grants of $5,000 and $1,250 respectively to Molokai Middle School’s 434M Team Menehune, and to Kualapu`u School’s Teams 1037A and 1037B. All three teams are headed to the 2017 VEX World Championships on April 21-26, and these funds will help support travel costs to Kentucky. A grant of $1,250 was also awarded by the Maui agricultural alliance to Molokai High School’s Team 1037C to also support their travels to Iowa for the 2017 Create U.S. Open Robotics Championship on April 6-8. In total, the Maui agricultural community granted $7,500 to Molokai Robotics alone this year in support of post-season championship events.

The 10th Annual Maui County Agricultural Festival was held on Saturday April 1 at the Maui Tropical Plantation in Waikapu. It is the premier agricultural event for Maui County that brings together the entire industry, highlights local vendors, promotes, educates and builds awareness of agriculture, and showcases the importance of agriculture in the Maui community.

Dignitaries that helped to present the awards included Hawaii State Senator Kalani English, Molokai’s own State Representative Lynn DeCoite, Maui County Mayor Alan Arakawa, Molokai’s own County Councilwoman Stacy Helm Crivello, and Maui County Farm Bureau Executive Director Warren Watanabe. Five teams from Maui County received grant awards that day, four of which came from Molokai. Kualapu`u Teams 1037A and 1037B will be Molokai’s first elementary teams to enter the Elementary Division at VEX Worlds, and they will be joined by the STEM Imagineers from Pukalani Elementary who also received a grant that day. Molokai Middle’s 434M Team Menehune will be the only Hawaii team to represent Molokai and Maui County in the Middle School Division at VEX Worlds. Molokai High’s 1037C will be the only Hawaii team to represent Molokai and Maui County in the High School Division at the Create U.S. Open.

The 2017 VEX Worlds will take place from April 23 through 25 at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky. The event can be viewed at http://bit.ly/2mnjimg

MMS STEM Robotics, the Molokai VEX IQ League, and Molokai Robotics League thank their Maui community partners and sponsors including the County of Maui, Maui Economic Development Board, Maui County Farm Bureau, Maui County Ag Festival, and Maui Family and Friends of Agriculture.

To help support our teams, please go to the following links for our elementary http://bit.ly/2mNqPe6, middle http://bit.ly/2oTfHe4 , and high school http://bit.ly/2nVhui1 teams.