Robotics team demonstrates for migrant children

Vernon — The Vernon Vikings High School Robotics Team visited the Pine Island School in Pine Island, N.Y., in August to demonstrate their robot from this past season.
Over the summer, this school hosts the Warwick Area Migrant Committee, an organization that has served farmworkers in Orange County for over 50 years.
While there, Captain Brendan O'Connell, along with other members and project leaders of the team, lead a demonstration to the eager children about their robotics program and FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology).
The Summer Enrichment program in Pine Island provides care for approximately 80 children over the summer. The focus of the program is to provide enrichment activities, including Writer’s Workshop, reading, arts and music. Viking Robotics fits right into this theme, demonstrating the skills and creativity needed to build the machine. Similarly, the Vernon students supported the program’s mission statement of “one world, I can make a difference.” They engaged the younger students by not only having the robot throw balls and climb a rope, but by also allowing the children to drive the machine around the gymnasium and learn about it firsthand.
Katherine Brieger, executive director of the program said, “The WAMC has been offered a lot of support from the retired nuns of Mustard Seed Migrant Ministry. Support for this program has been community-wide, including our partners in Vernon.”