RaileRobotics is headed to St. Louis, Mo. to compete at nationals April 26-29. In order to raise funds for this opportunity, the team came together to come up with the idea of hosting a fundraiser dinner on April 7. The team prepared spaghetti for the dinner, charging eight dollars for each plate.

“The idea of selling food has been around for a while. Generally clubs sell frozen foods to take home, burritos, pastries, etc… we wanted to do something a bit different, and meet the people who are donating. It also lines up nicely with the school play,” sophomore Milo Jones said.

The Robotics team has only a short period of time before they head to nationals. Considering the team has attended the competition in previous years, they are prepared this year.

“Well, our robot is already built and competition will go how it goes. The only thing left to do for nationals is fundraise,” Jones said. “We pack up a trailer full of tools, parts, our robot etc… At the competition we set this up in a little area called the “pit” like in racing. We also hand out bandannas and buttons here to spread our ‘brand.’

The only aspect left to consider is the team members who will be attending the competition.
“We do not know this yet (who will be attending nationals). Our team leader gets to make that final decision. In years past however, I believe it was a smaller group who got to go,” Jones said.

With all of their previous achievements the team is only looking for one thing at nationals this year.

“(Something that we hope to gain from nationals is) a win. Other than that there is not much to gain. The team has been there before, so we know what it’s like and the game changes every year so there isn’t an advantage for next year,” Jones said.