EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Ysleta’s Riverside Elementary and Hanks High School have the opportunity to compete in the VEX Robotics Competition but are struggling financially to get there.
Traveling with many students can become quite expensive. Both Riverside Elementary and Hanks High School students have held their own fundraisers to support their robotics teams.
“We’ve done a snow cone sale for them during our dance, we did an aguas frescas sale here too, just trying to collect some money to get both teams there.” said Monica Martinez, Riverside Elementary robotics team coach.
Riverside Elementary students have taken two months to build their robots Beast and Cindy the Terrible. Hanks High School students have also been working on their robots, Perla, Juantacious and Knight-X, getting them ready to compete against other schools.
Robotics and Engineering Teacher, Brian Flores, says “the teams have been practicing building the robots since August of last year. We’ve been adding it for seven months now. We’re here too late in the evening, we’re here on the weekends.”
The robotics championship is set to take place on Friday, April 21 through Thursday, May 4 in Dallas, Texas. The students will be competing against 800 teams from around the world.
Both schools have set up their own GoFundMe accounts. If you would like to help Riverside Elementary students and Hanks High School students with their travel expenses, go to Riverside Elementary GoFundMe and Hanks High School GoFundMe.
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