Like any other club, Robotics Club works all year to earn money to help fuel their club and the things that come with it. For Robotics Club, these funds are used to buy supplies, such as metals and equipment, needed to build new, intricate robots.

The week of Dec. 17-21, the week before Christmas break, Robotics Club held a dodgeball tournament in the gym. The tournament took place every day during PLT, in which eight teams competed against each other for the title of champions, two of those teams being teams made up of Robotics Club members.

The idea sparked from sophomore James Wingrove and juniors Kevin Lawrence and Fernando Franco.

In order to prepare for the event, Wingrove, Lawrence and Franco gained approval from Principal William Deal to hang posters and signs around the school to promote the event and get as many people involved as possible.

When coming up with rules and regulations for the matches, Wingrove and Lawrence said they took the outline of rules from games they used to play in middle school.

“We had to add that you can’t argue with the referees, though,” Wingrove said with a laugh.

They disclosed that the fundraiser was purely a way to have fun and earn money for their club while doing so.

“We just did it for fun. It was just kind of something to unwind and raise some money so we can keep building robots,” senior David Eisenbrown said, Co-President of Robotics Club.

The club consists of Eisenbrown and senior Willem Michener as Co-Presidents, junior Wesley Heater as Vice President, senior Tanner Boyer as Treasurer and senior Nicholas DiNardo as Secretary.

The championship game was the only one played on full court. All students and teachers were invited to come down and watch, as well.

According to Eisenbrown, a member of the “Robotics 1” team, along with Lawrence, Franco, sophomore Ryan Jones, junior Chase Winkle and senior Sean Conforto, the championship game was a hard fought battle, but the A-team ended up taking the victory.

The members of the A-team include seniors Zachary Rosa, Cody Ross, Noah Yeck, Jacob Pail, Ethan Paxton and Riley McIlvain.

The event ended up earning Robotics Club a total of $72, which Eisenbrown positively remarked was, “$72 we didn’t have before, so we are satisfied.”

“We’d like to give a huge ‘thank you’ to Skybacher Ministries for loaning us the dodgeballs, Mr. Coennen for keeping the bracket and Mr. Badamo for just being a great adviser,” Eisenbrown said.

Robotics Club plans to have another fundraiser before the year is over in order to prepare for their competition to come later in the year.