The judges were waiting. And Faxon Elementary School’s robotics teams were up.

Nervous?

Oh yes.

But now it was time to show why Faxon and its partners at the Front Porch Alliance this year decided to move its robotics program to after-school hours with LINC.

These kids had to make commitments to work those extra hours. Their parents made commitments to support the cause.

Saturday, Dec. 4, they stepped into the arena at the FIRST Lego League robotics competition at Kansas City’s Troost Elementary School and — though some had flashes of doubt — they were ready.

“I could sense all of the tension and the nerves,” said Hanna Hochstetler, the lead coach with the non-profit Front Porch Alliance.

Some were telling LINC Caring Communities Coordinator Yolanda Robinson, “I can’t do it, Ms Yolanda!”

But they came back from their closed-door meetings with the judges, where they talked about the innovation and the design in their computer-programmed Lego robots, “all lit up,” Robinson said.

They had trusted each other, bonded anew and came out for the field competitions with soaring confidence, Hochstetler said.

“The excitement really set the tone for the rest of the day,” she said.

When it was over, one of Faxon’s teams — Scooby Doo Crew — won the Robot Performance Award. The other Faxon team — The Promised Robot Slayers — won the Motivate Award.

They also came away with scores and comments from the judges that they had performed with great sportsmanship and gracious professionalism, Hochstetler said — the core values that the FIRST robotics competitions treasure most of all.

The Front Porch Alliance, whose youth programs reach nearly 200 children on Kansas City’s East Side, has had a partnership with Faxon for 10 years, including robotics programs. But robotics went on hiatus during the pandemic’s quarantine.

Faxon Principal Kathleen Snipes and LINC’s Robinson thought the after-school program would be a great place to bring the robotics back, Hochstetler said.

One of the first hurdles was impressing on families at home that the robotics program needed a two-nights-a-week commitment to stay at Faxon until 6 p.m., Robinson said. And parents bought in.

“They saw the work was tangible,” she said. “They saw this was important, and the kids kept coming back.”

The FIRST program, by design, provides many roles for teammates, including robot design, computer coding, research, spirit support and more. The team’s mentors, coaches and parents and families saw their children stepping into leadership roles.

And families got to go into the auditorium at Troost Elementary to see the teams compete as the players guided their programmed robots through a field of tasks and challenges.

Many schools, including the Kansas City Public Schools, because of Covid-19, haven’t allowed parents inside school buildings, so Saturday’s competition was a refreshing opportunity to be together and cheer.

“I saw parents, grandparents, godparents, big brothers, cousins,” Robinson said. Through Covid and everything that has happened, she said, “there is still power in parents and their support.”

And in those Faxon students, Robinson and Hochstetler said, where there might have been a wisp of doubt, they saw the smile of confidence.

By Joe Robertson?LINC Writer