Baltimore city’s FIRST robotics team advances to district championship

A competitive robotics team made up of students from Baltimore high schools is heading to the district championship this week.
According to Fox45, it’s the inaugural year for the Baltimore Bolts. They were one of 58 teams to qualify for the FIRST robotics competition regionals in Richmond, Va. The competition is held from April 6-8 at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Raiden is ready to go for Edgewater! @baltcityschools https://t.co/7txXJybHxL pic.twitter.com/7JgGHxqr1a

— Baltimore Bolts (@bmorebolts) March 21, 2017

The six students on the team are from four high schools, including Western High School, Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School, National Academy Foundation and Paul L. Dunbar High School.
“Essentially, we are a rainbow of a team, different walks of life, different experiences from day to day,” Mergenthaler Vocational Tech High School student Ari Barnett-Goodwin told the station.
They’ve been building at Open Works, and got support from NASA, Sylvan and the Baltimore City Robotics Center. The team is turning to the community to help raise additional funds. They’ve raised $2,584 of their $4,000 goal as of press time.
“We are looking for funds to help defray costs of registration and travel to the tournament. Any funds raised above and beyond the goal will be used to fund the team in the future,” wrote coach Mike Kaurich on the GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign.