Fund Team 5142's Journey to Houston for Worlds

Our efforts this season have qualified us to compete in the FIRST Robotics World Championships. Taking place in Texas in just over a week and a half, our team is seeking support as we prepare to compete against 600 teams from countries across the globe!

We are Team 5142, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit robotics team based in New Haven, CT. Team 5142, the Robodominators, is a small independent robotics team composed of students from surrounding New Haven Public Schools.

Our team is used to making more with less. Our tool shop consists of repurposing broken machines from companies. Our robot's material is composed of donated metal and components from old robots, and our tools come directly from our mentors' garages.

Even with limited resources, our team has always tried to impact teams, members, and our community. This year we planned outreach at local middle schools, partnered with local businesses, and extended a helping hand to empower local New Haven robotics teams. We built a practice field and shared our space, tools, materials, and mentors to surrounding teams. During events, such as the one in Hartford, we lent our programming, electrical, and mechanical teams to help out a handful of teams--some of which couldn't even drive but ended up competing the day after.

Since our inception in 2014, our team has faced many setbacks, but for the past two years, we have truly given it our all. Our mentors come to meetings and drive hours from Massachusetts or New York. Our drive team met daily to practice, the programming team stayed up until 2AM to code, and our mechanical and business teams are always on their feet.

Last year, Team 5142 were finalists at our first event and placed well enough to earn a spot in the district championships. We placed third overall at our first event and won the creativity award. At our second event we were finalists and won our back-to-back creativity award. Earning a spot in the district championships for the second time in 11 years, we fought our way to the top and displayed skills that rivaled that of long established and well funded teams. We ended off the event as finalists, receiving praise from large and small teams alike. Later, we discovered that we had accumulated enough points to receive an invitation to the World Championship in Houston, Texas—a highly coveted honor that, just a few years ago, we could only dream of achieving.

Now we need YOUR help to make this dream a reality. We want to make this trip as affordable as possible for every player on our team. Expenses such as flights, transportation, food, materials, and event registration are sky high and since we did not anticipate such a successful season, we have not had the time or resources to fundraise. Every dollar matters and if you are unable to donate, please consider sharing to as many people as possible!

Thank You!