[Doug Leppard]

As an adult mentor I helped at school. I was asked to start a robotics program at the school. We eventually started doing FIRST robotics.

Problem FIRST is so intense that it is hard for the school to support it. For instance working to 10pm+ or the all night build close to the end. Hard for a teacher to be there all the time.

Finally the team collapsed under the weight of FIRST and the school not understanding FIRST closed it.

A team mom not wanting her son and others to loose out formed 1902 at the last second. We are now formed under 4H club. We literally build the robot at four locations. Robot is built in the college mentor’s garage. Team meetings are at Wendy’s the team leader's house. Programming is done at adult mentor’s house. The practice field was set up at the 4H facility.

It was both hard and good being out of garages, but it worked and was one of the reasons I believe we made it to Einstein.

We now have members on our team from many schools. If a school can not afford their own team they can be part of ours.