FIRST Tragedy - Help from FIRST community requested

[Alex2614]

Please take a minute to review the story behind why we are asking for help. This is nothing technical or robot-related, but a matter of a tragedy-struck FLL team and local FIRST community.


We are MARS—Mountaineer Area Robotics—FRC team 2614 from Morgantown, West Virginia. We are happy to say we have a thriving local and statewide FLL program that has brought FIRST to the over 200 middle school students involved. However, it is a source of much grief to announce that right after the 2011 FRC kickoff, tragedy struck one of our local FLL teams.

This team, the Smarticle Robo Builders, was one of the first FLL teams we started back in the fall of 2008. They were the runners-up at this year’s state tournament and qualified to compete at the FLL US Open in in LEGOLAND, California in May. Their head mentor, a man named Roy Hollinger, was a father figure to the students in spirit and in actuality, a father to one of them and grandfather to another. He has served as a great mentor to not only his team, but the mentors and students of other local FLL teams as well. Sadly, he passed away early last month.

Robotics truly changed his life. He became involved after his wife started coaching the team. He lived to mentor these kids - One of the main topics at his funeral was robotics and how much he loved it and how much the kids loved him.

Remarkably, the tragedy-struck family and team still want to travel to the US Open to continue his legacy. The response from the community and the other FLL teams has truly been inspiring. Everyone, including other FLL coaches and students, is pitching in to help them with travel costs and mentoring to prepare for the US Open.

It is now that we come to you, the FIRST community, with heavy hearts in hopes that you might help this team. Any financial donations, even as little as a dollar, will go a very long way.

We have set up a PayPal account for this team at SmarticleRoboBuildersToUSOpen@gmail.com or you can send cash or check (made payable to Mountaineer Area Robotics) to Alex Stout at 124 Scenery Drive Morgantown, WV 26505.


Thank you all SO MUCH! It really means a lot to the entire community to have just read this post, let alone donating a couple dollars.

-MARS team 2614