North Catholic Robotics Team Holiday Toy Drive Benefits the Children’s Home of Pittsburgh & Lemieux Family Center
CRANBERRY TWP, PA – December 19, 2019, North Catholic High School Robotics’ Team 5740, the Trojanators, gifted adapted toys to Children’s Home of Pittsburgh & Lemieux Family Center. Team 5740 adapted toys with special buttons, lights, and vibrations as their Holiday Toy Project. These toys provide opportunities for medically fragile children to play by removing the need for dexterity and fine motor skills, making them developmentally appropriate for any skill and ability level.
To fund the project, the Trojanators held an all-school fundraiser and raised over $2,000 to build these adaptive toys for the inpatients at the Pediatric Specialty Hospital at The Children’s Home. This facility serves medically fragile children ages birth to 21. The student’s adapted toys will directly benefit patients in the hospital experiencing disability or developmental delays.
“Our robotics program is really excited to sustain our relationship with the Children's Home of Pittsburgh! After the first round of toy adaptation, we joined with the student body at North Catholic High School to raise the funds for another delivery - just in time for Christmas,” said said David Yackuboskey, STEMM Coordinator, Teacher and Lead Mentor for North Catholic High School’s FRC Team 5740. “Students on Team 5740 are building adapted toys for a great group of kids, but this partnership is also building empathy, compassion, and a culture of care in our students.”
“North Catholic Robotics has been incredibly generous in donating adapted toys to our patients and families of The Children’s Home and Lemieux Family Center. Toys like this are not only expensive, but very hard to come by; and we truly appreciate their hard work to make sure our patients get the most from development through play. They really spread a special kind of joy to our children here,” said Pam Keen, CEO of The Children’s Home & Lemieux Family Center.
The mission of the robotics program at North Catholic High School is building students of creativity, leadership, and professionalism – connecting them to a future enlightened by their STEMM experiences. This is accomplished by investing students in FIRST Robotics, a holistic program in which teams of students design, build and compete with their robots. It is also about sharpening character traits such as gracious professionalism, networking with peers and industry professionals from around the globe, as well as problem solving in a project-based learning environment. North Catholic High School is located in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, and is celebrating 80 years of excellence.
To learn more information about the Trojanators, visit:
https://www.northcatholic.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=1554012&type=d&pREC_ID=1696651