Howard robotics team raises funds for Ellicott City flood victims

After watching videos of the July 30 Ellicott City flood, the Futuristic Engineers, a Howard County robotics team, immediately wanted to help.&quot;We saw a video on the news of the cars floating away in the flood, which is really devastating,&quot; said sixth-grader David Zheng. &quot;That's why we wanted to raise money.&quot;The group of 10 kids from various elementary and middle schools in the county came together to form their robotics team about a year ago at the Catonsville campus of the Howard County Chinese School, where they are students.The members of Futuristic Engineers, who attend different elementary and middle schools across Howard County, planned the fundraiser for Historic Ellicott City themselves and made posters and fliers like this one to attract donors. The team's coach, Mindy Liu, said she was happy to see the kids applying the collaborative skills they have learned since their robotics team formed a year ago.&quot;We're in FLL. It stands for First Lego League, which we build with Legos. One part of it is core values, and one part of that is to help other people at all times,&quot; said David, who started the team the help of his mother, Mindy Liu. &quot;So we try to fulfill the core values, to be the best FLL team that we can be.&quot;After the flood, the team held a meeting to discuss how they could help, said sixth-grader Jeff Li, and to plan their next steps.One student took notes to distribute in the form of a memo to each team member after the meeting.The Futuristic Engineers had previously sold chocolate to raise money for their team, Jeff said, but had never fundraised for an outside cause.The team decided to sell lemonade and cookies in front of the Miller Branch library during two nights in late August. They made posters and fliers and split up into two groups to cover each night.&quot;To make sure everyone came,&quot; David said.Ultimately the team raised $98.05 to donate to victims of the Ellicott City flood.&quot;The hardest part of the sale was getting people to buy and donate,&quot; Jeff said. &quot;Because we can't just scream out and force them to buy lemonade.&quot;&quot;Most people, they told us they would come out once they finished in the library,&quot; David said. &quot;Which was very nice, and better than just waving us off.&quot;Liu, the team's coach, said she was happy to see the team apply the skills they have picked up over the past year to plan their fundraiser.&quot;They really applied the way how they work as a team,&quot; she said. &quot;How to share the workload, and how to attract people.&quot;Learning these skills is more important than winning their robotics competitions, Liu said.&quot;The most important thing for them, that I really want to share, is how to work as a team,&quot; she said.

Howard robotics team raises funds for Ellicott City flood victims

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