It has been a crazy busy season, full of robot building, coding and outreach. Here’s how things shook out.

We had our first ever in person qualifier in November. We qualified for state and brought home the Connect Award. It was quite an accomplishment for us to go from 6 months of prep time in our previous 2 seasons, to only 9 weeks this season.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas the team did a complete rebuild of the lift mechanism and then worked on programming, driving and tournament prep. We had outreach or volunteer events with ImagineIf Library in Kalispell, Girl Scouts, Toys for Tots, Flathead Electric, Applied Materials, Boys and Girls Club in Columbia Falls and the Missoula FIRST LEGO League Qualifier. We also helped out the West Valley School Tech Warrior FLL teams and other teams across the country. We had some build hiccups (motor fire, oodles of string issues, screw jammed in slides), but overcame them, and learned along the way. The girls’ robot “McQueen” is outstanding, they all did a tremendous job.

On February 3rd at the Montana State FTC Championship, we were awarded the 3rd Place Inspire Award, and Zia is a Montana Dean’s List Finalist. We also stayed in Bozeman for an extra day to volunteer at the FLL State Championship. The coaches, mentors, and parents just can’t say enough how proud we are of the girls and all of their hard work this season.

It’s going to be so hard to say goodbye to our graduating seniors Katie and Jessie, but we look forward to seeing what these incredible young women accomplish in the future.

At this point, we are focused on Girl Scout Cookies sales to help fund next season, helping Zia get to the World Championship, and planning for next season.

If you’re interested in purchasing Girl Scout Cookies, we have a couple of options for you.

• Here is a link to our Troop cookie page, the cookies will be shipped to your door!
• If you don’t mind waiting until the end of March, we’ll have our drive-thru Girl Scout Cookie Booths at the Flathead County Fairgrounds on the weekends (Friday/Saturday/Sunday) at the end of March. 3/24,3/25, 3/26, 3/31, 4/1, 4/2.

Zia is going to need some help getting to the FTC World Championship in Houston, TX in April. We need to raise about $2,500. As a Dean’s List Finalist she can attend all of the events and workshops at the championship, visit with colleges and leading technical companies at the technical fair and participate in special activities for Dean’s List Finalists. There will be about 128 finalists, from which 10 will be chosen as Dean’s List Winners. It is an incredible opportunity for Zia and an honor to be chosen to represent our state. We’ll have a GoFundMe up shortly to help get her there and we have a few other fund raising ideas brewing. Keep an eye out for opportunities to help.

Planning for next season, we are in early recruiting mode. We are working on planning visits to the area middle and high schools. We’ll see how many we can get to.

The third Wednesday of each month through May, our meeting time is open for visitors, especially girls currently in grades 7-11 interested in joining the team and their families. If you’d like to stop by during our Wednesday evening meetings (3/15, 4/19, 5/17), drop us an email and let us know to expect you and we can answer any questions about time and location. We also have a team interest form you can fill out here:

As always, we cannot do what we do without the generous support of our families, community and sponsors. Special thank yous this season to Logan Health for providing our awesome robotics lab space, Kalispell Toyota for lending us a van for both tournament trips; Northwest Drywall and Park Side Credit Union for donating to the state championship trip; MacKenzie River Pizza and Kalispell Subway for sponsoring meals on the state championship trip; Nomad GCS, SWAE and Guiffrida Enterprises for taking the time to share their business with us, learn about what we do and help with both functional an aesthetic parts for our robot; J2, RadioActive, Lowes, SignsNow and Harbor Freight for helping with items for our new robotics lab; PaperChase for fantastic discounted printing services; Flathead Electric for sharing their expertise and facilities with us this “Energize” season; and of course Girl Scouts of Montana and Wyoming for covering our team registration, the bulk of the costs associated with state championship trip and their continuous support and encouragement. If you have the opportunity to thank any of these organizations, please do so. Their support means so much to us.

Be on the lookout for updated information about Cookie Sales, fundraising for Zia and next season, and recruitment and outreach events we have coming up. Thank you all!