WIKWEMIKONG—As the community took part in dozens of fun-filled Winter Chill (the annual Wikwemikong winter carnival) activities downstairs at the Wikwemikong High School, a determined team of students were sequestered in a lab upstairs, their concentration totally focussed on building this year’s entry into the First Robotics Regional Competition in North Bay.
This year’s event is even more challenging than last year’s competition and this year’s Team 5672, the Wikwemikong High School Robotics Team, hopes to top the third place showing of last year’s team in the school’s inaugural outing at the competition. With 32 registered teams going head to head on a castle-themed battleground that presents the builders with a series of barricades that must be breached and a tower that must be overcome, the challenges are indeed daunting.
To get an idea of just how daunting the First Robotics “Stronghold” course is this year, take a look at the YouTube video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqOKzoHJDjA.
This year’s Build Team include Tim Pitawanakwat, Dehmin Eshkawkogan, Angel Peltier, Patrina Pitawanakwat, Eileen Letander-Trudeau, Reynold Assiniwe, Alex Desmoulin, Matthew Oshkawbwesiens and Landon Peltier. The social media team is headed up by Euginia Eshkawkogan. The programming team is Nicholas Wemigwans and team chairperson is Annie Wemigwans.
In the competition contestants follow strict rules, with limited resources and under the guidance of volunteer mentors that can include engineers, teachers, business professionals, parents, alumni to name a few, where teams of 25 or more students have just six weeks to build and program robots to perform challenging tasks against a field of competitors. They must also raise funds, design a team brand, hone their teamwork skills and perform community outreach. In addition to learning valuable STEM and life skills, participants are eligible to apply for $25+ million in college scholarships.
Being a rural high school presents its own challenges to a robotics team, particularly where sponsorships are concerned, but the Wikwemikong team has again been punching well above their weight with corporate sponsors such as Union Gas being augmented by local sponsors as diverse as Manitowaning’s Loco Beans, the Wikwemikong Hock Shop, Ham’s Marine and even the Honourable Justice Leonard S. (Tony) Mandamin (himself one of Canada’s first aboriginal electrical engineers) stepping up to the plate.
photos by Michael Erskine
The Expositor was gratified to learn that a story in our newspaper helped to further the cause, when a summer resident read about the team. “Chris Hare, the owner of Metal Supermarkets, has a cottage up here,” said team mentor Wikwemikong High School Chris Mara. “He has been approached by a number of teams for sponsorship, but we are the first he has approached.”
The team got a great boost to their fundraising efforts with a $10 a ticket raffle that included among its prizes a 2016 Ford Focus, which raised several thousand dollars for the cause. George Peltier of Wikwemikong was the lucky winner of that car.
The competition is slated to take place March 24-26 at Nipissing University (100 College Drive, North Bay) and admission is free, so if you are in the neighbourhood stop by and cheer the Manitoulin representatives on.
