Calumet Copper Kings bring home trophies in all kinds of competitions. And next week the CLK CopperBots will look to bring home a international piece of hardware from Houston. The Copper Bots recently competed at the state FIRST 2025 Championship. CLK math teach and Robotics instructor Todd Waurio says he’s incredibly proud to see how his students have grown during the season. And with a little luck they can do anything.
And you really have to have not only a great team, a great robot, but you have to have great fortune because all of these teams throughout the state that qualify for the state championship truly are some of the best in the world. So just to be able to be there and considering the team is really a young team and our experience was low, but just kind of shows like this, our robot truly is student designed, student built, and what they put together was just amazing. And we had just, we had an incredible run to get into the world championships. So we are so fortunate to be there. – Todd Waurio, Math Teacher, Calumet High School
Byron David and Evelyn Robb have been a part of the team in the past two years. Evenlyn says its very exciting to take a trip down to Houston.
there are so many just like other people you get to talk to you get to meet and you will have something in common and that’s that you’re part of a robotics team. But there’s also so many different kinds of people and it’s just really cool to see all the mascots, you know. Like just people are wearing crazy costumes, it’s loud there’s music, people are dancing. I mean the competitions are really amazing and it’s just so much fun. – Evelyn Robb, Junior, Calumet High School
Byron adds that being a part of robotics has taught each student different skills they can take with them off the court.
But there’s a lot of other things that go into it like networking. We have a team member who has been contacting sponsors and marketing and stuff like that. For me, this year I really got into designing our logo and stuff like the sweatshirt that Evelyn is wearing is something that I designed. And like going through that process and doing stuff like that. – Byron David, Senior, Calumet High School
CLK CopperBots aren’t the only team from the Upper Peninsula taking a trip to the 2025 FIRST Championship in Houston. They’ll be joined by two other teams in the region, and qualifiers from downstate. Waurio adds a parent volunteer plans to travel with the teams equipment. But the team needs some help funding travel for students down to Houston.
There’s an extremely small timeline. In fact, we compete next Wednesday, so we need to be in Houston next Wednesday. So all of the logistics we’re working out right now. The entry fee alone is close to $6,000. Travel, room and board we look at and we’re really exceeding that $12,000 to $14,000 range. And we’ve been really fortunate with some fantastic corporate sponsors and personal sponsors and just people supporting us all over. We have a number of fundraisers right now. We do have some, Jim’s Pizza in Calumet has generously donated some gift certificates that we have our students outselling. And I do have them available on our Facebook page, at least information linking to it. We additionally set up a GoFundMe just on the request of some people asking how can they help. It’s amazing watching the Upper Peninsula really support the teams. We have three strong teams from the UP going and I think it’s really something to be proud of and the UP definitely shows that they’re proud of these teams. – Todd Waurio, Math Teacher, Calumet High School
Learn more about the Copper Bots and their fundraising efforts here.
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