Serving the Community and Helping Their Team

At a previous food drive, robotics students get ready to greet donors and collect food for the Bailey Center. They will again be collecting food for the Bailey Center on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Photo courtesy of Team 589

By Lori BODNAR, intern

Help spread some kindness and love this Valentine’s Day weekend by supporting a food drive.

The pandemic has been hard on so many facets of society. Many people have become unemployed, finding themselves in the position – many for the first time – of being food insecure; that is, not knowing from where their next meal will come.

Students who are remote-learning are finding it a challenge to exercise their “volunteer” muscles because many of those opportunities are associated with in-person events, which are currently postponed.

The Crescenta Valley High School (CVHS) robotics team has come up with a way to meet both needs by hosting a food drive on Saturday to support the Bailey Human Care Center at the United Methodist Church in Tujunga.

CVHS seniors Kimberley Miller and Eric Limonadi are the primary student organizers of the food drive.

“During the summer, I kept seeing news articles about the Bailey Center needing more food to provide for others so we decided to do food drives for the Bailey Center,” said Miller. “We [held] monthly food drives until December when the [number of] COVID-19 cases climbed.”

The Bailey Center has been serving the community and helping feed those in need for nearly 40 years. Currently Bailey Center helps approximately 900 households each week. To assist this effort, on Saturday, Feb. 13 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the CVHS robotics team is collecting non-perishable food items such as canned food, cereals, flour, sugar, and rice that will be donated to the Bailey Center. Donors can drop off items in the CVHS parking lot at the southeast corner of Ramsdell Avenue and Community Avenue. After entering the CVHS parking lot from Ramsdell, donors can pull forward to a donation table, then pop open the trunk of their car for the CV robotics team members to retrieve the donations.

Saturday’s food drive is the CV robotics’ fifth drive-thru food event, a response by team members to the increased need for food due to the ongoing pandemic. Team members have collected more than 6,600 pounds of donations, all benefitting the Bailey Center.

The CVHS robotics team is following COVID-19 precautions during the food drive. There will only be about five students manning the food drive at one time, and each student will be at their own table wearing masks, face shields and gloves. They will be disinfecting the donation tables. Students do not come in contact with the donors. Donors are asked to wear a mask and stay in their car. The students will pick up the food items from the trunk of the car.

Limonadi, who was selected as a FIRST – For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology – Robotics Competition dean’s list finalist last year in the Los Angeles Regional North Competition, has been instrumental in printing PPE face shields for volunteers to wear at the CV robotics drive-thru events.

“Face shields are an enhancement to normal cloth masks,” he explained. “Face shields are made with plastic headbands with a plastic sheet to provide extra protection. I used my modeling and design skills from robotics to 3D-print the headband. I cut holes in clear plastic sheets and attached the plastic sheets to the headbands to make the face shields.”

The CVHS FIRST Robotics Competition Team 589 has roughly 45 students. The teacher advisor of Team 589 is science teacher Dr. Greg Neat, and the other is an employee at JPL, Lyn Repath-Martos. Team 589 remains connected during the pandemic through regular Zoom meetings and playing together on Minecraft servers.

These activities keep Team 589 close although competitions with multiple robots and teams have been put on hold. In addition, the team can take part in virtual and essay robotics competitions.

“I like how open our team is,” said Limonadi. “There are no requirements and no experience needed to become part of the robotics team. Robotics members can work on their own time and learn a lot.”

The strategy has been effective; last year, the CVHS FIRST Robotics Competition Team 589 won the Engineering Inspiration Award.

“I like the team dynamic of our robotics team,” added Miller. “It really feels like a second family. Before the pandemic, we had Friday night dinners [together]. Our robotics team is also fun because we get to meet new people.”

Limonadi plans on taking his experience with robotics to the next level: majoring in aerospace engineering in college. He wants to have a career in space exploration or Earth science.

“I want to join the Mars Missions but also help the climate crisis,” he said. He’s been accepted to Purdue University and the University of Colorado Boulder.

Miller has plans that are more Earth-bound. She wants to major in marine biology and work with sharks whether it is in policy, research or conservation. She has been accepted to Hawaii Pacific University.