The Canton Lions Club met at the Van Zandt Country Club on Wednesday, April 27. The meeting was presided over by President Lace Deibert. The Martins Mill Robotics Team brought their award-winning robot to demonstrate the abilities they have programed into it. Club members were once again amazed by the accomplishments of this group of students and their dedicated coaches from Martins Mill High School.

Thanks to Ms. A, who is the notebook coach, for the following information about the team: “Since 2011, Martins Mill Robotics has made a name for itself in the BEST Robotics competition with 7 back-to-back state championships, as well as the title of reigning National Champions. We have excelled in all aspects of the robotics competition including the engineering notebook, marketing/sales, and the robot game and functionality.

“Our program not only produces successful robots, but capable adults who go on to apply their engineering and life skills to the outside world. We have over 50 students who have graduated and participated in the Texas B.E.S.T robotics program, six of whom currently work with a local industry - Morrow Construction as chief of operations, foremen, surveyors and operators. Some of our students who have been a part of BEST have received outstanding scholarships. For example, Rylie Alsobrook received the Inaugural National Lockheed Martin Scholarship for $10,000 a year, and Ben Burns, a more recent graduate, also received the Lockheed Martin scholarship. Connor Munns & Eve Morrow both received the UT Tyler Presidential Fellows Scholarship (full ride). Our graduates have attended, or are now attending universities in the UT, A&M and Texas Tech systems. By using the construction and problem solving skills learned in robotics, these men and women are achieving great success in their college and career fields.

“Our robotics program regularly outreaches throughout the community to repair and provide for Martins Mill and beyond. We built two interactive robots: Sally the Robot for the DARE program and Jeff the Toucan for our Life Skills program. We not only have talented students, but we raise great engineers with our summer camps and programs for ages K-7th grade. Our current students work with their younger peers under our mentors’ supervision to polish their own skills and share what they’ve learned with the upand-coming generation.”