An all girl, rookie Lego League team of five 5^th graders and three 4^th graders from Chelmsford went into their qualifying tournament with the simple hopes of doing well and gaining experience.  These girls at first met 1-2 times a week starting in August to learn how to program a robot made from Lego products, use science and technology to master skill challenges, work with their Senior partners and sponsors from The Summer Palace to identify and develop a product to assist seniors in making life easier, design and perform a skit illustrating their ideas as well as execute a series of tasks for a team of judges without adult supervision to prove they have knowledge to back up their product at the tournament.  They had a great time, while impressing the judges with their spirit, teamwork and overall performance.

Competing against 23 other teams of varying experience and ages, he girls took an early lead in robot performance that held steady for the entire day and earned them 2^nd place.  This award recognizes the team that scores the most points during the Robot Game.   They also received the “Teamwork” award, which recognizes the team that is able to accomplish more together than they could as individuals through shared goals, strong communication, effective problem solving and excellent time management.

As we sat through the awards ceremony, we were all overwhelmed with pride as our girls were announced winners of the “Champion’s Award!”  This is the most prestigious award that any team can win.  It celebrates the ultimate success of the FLL (First Lego League) mission and FLL values.  It measures how the team members inspire and motivate others about the excitement of science and technology, solve problems and demonstrate respect and gracious professionalism to everyone involved in the competition. 

We, as the girl’s parents, are extremely proud of their dedication and enthusiasm toward the group, the project and at the tournament.  They could not have done it without the tireless work of their coach, Leon Reitman and his assistant coach, Chris Dorsey.  They gave their time to help the girls along with building and programming robot, assisting them to find the right project and presenting it to our senior partners.  They made it possible for our team to find our wonderful sponsors, FESTO and The Summer Palace. The Legolicious team takes their talents to the state competition this Saturday, December 15^th in Worcester, MA at WPI to compete against 83 other state qualifiers! Best of Luck! 

Legolicious Team:  Jessica Bejar, Olivia Dalton, Allison Dorsey, Shea Kenny, Emily Nolan, Emma Reitman, Gabby Sabbouh and Evelyn Thim