Kinetic Knights end season by thanking sponsors, presenting awards

The Kinetic Knights Robotics Team 781 held a thank you event, Saturday afternoon at the Lake Huron Learning Centre, attended by team members, mentors, family, friends and sponsors.

Administrative captain Darby Watterworth and build captain Gregory Reid outlined the year, noting the team did things it had never done before and won new awards.

At the top of the list was making Kincardine a FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) community, followed by holding the second annual FIRST Lego League qualifying regional in Kincardine.

After building the robot at the first of the year, the team travelled to the Greater Toronto East regional in March where mentor Pat O'Cain was named a finalist for the Woodie Flowers mentors' award. The team also won the Gracious Professionalism award.

The team also travelled to the North Bay regional where it won the Engineering Inspiration award. This meant the Kinetic Knights were eligible to compete at the worlds in St. Louis, Missouri, in April where the they did its best.

Also this year, the Kinetic Knights won the Kincardine and District Chamber of Commerce Enbridge Quality of Life achievement award.

The new captains were introduced: administrative, Lana Splettstoesser; build, Chris Pierce; and safety, John Dahmer.

The following team members won awards:
 

• Rookie of the Year - recognizes that some people jump right in with both feet in their first few minutes on the team and never stop learning and contributing - Matt Venner and Priya Kalra
• Rising Star - Jed Gonzales and Meagan Quade
• Outstanding Contributions - Alex Pagnan, Lana Splettstoesser and Conner Dixon
• Leadership - has shown a willingness to lead, everything from outreach events or an area of the team, to stepping up during competitions, to mentoring an FLL team, to running an FLL tournament, to promoting robotics in other towns - Mat Strader
• Gracious Professionalism - based on input from the others on the team as they nominate a person they feel exemplifies the values of providing help and working with others in a respectful way - Brett Colhoun
• MVP - celebrates all-round excellence - Darby Watterworth