Volume 7 Newsletter December 22, 2023 |
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December News from Maine STREAM Place, Inc. |
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Welcome to our December newsletter! Our Fall programs are wrapping up as we are closing in on . . . The Kickoff! On January 6th, this year's FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) game will be released. This starts a frenzied time when the Knights decide how they want to play this year's game; and, what they will design, build, assemble, and program for their brand-new robot by February 29th (Week 1 competition) or possibly February 17th (Week 0 - example competition), if we get invited. The Squires will be competing in Maine State Lego League competition on February 3rd. We also took time to have some fun! |
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Community Event - Farmington |
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Farmington Rotary - Festival of Trees |
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Our Festival of Trees prep was a great success as the Knights finished the ornaments and decorated the tree, and even added a castle and many hand-painted knight figurines. The tree auctioned for $700 to benefit Farmington Rotary!! Only 4 other trees brought in more money, but they had many prizes of great value included. WOW!! Here's a link to an article that includes info about it: |
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On December 4th there was a snow day. School was out, and so were the sledders! Joseph and Leah thoughtfully let the Squires and Knights sled on their hill. The Clarks, Allens, Creznics, Guays, Roberts families, plus Silas, and Jedidiah came, too. They had lots of fun sledding, drinking hot chocolate, and some stayed to play games into the evening. |
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I was kneeling in my sled, gliding down the hill as fast as I could. Snow stung my cheeks, and my eyes darted back and forth across the hill in front of me, carefully searching for unseen kids planning to ambush me with volleys of snowballs. As I locked in on the hill in front of me, I readied myself for a quick dismount. As I crested the top, I saw a scattered herd of children all over the place. I wasn’t too concerned about missing my mark, as there were plenty of them near the intended destination. Each of them saw me, a navy-blue mass screaming downhill toward them, by the time I was about a quarter of the way down the hill. One of their ranks announced my presence with a yell, although they already heard the ominous rumbling of plastic on snow long beforehand. Kids began dashing away from my sled, some falling over in the deep snow, as fast as they could. Now was the time to choose a target. I saw a kid in a green jacket near the end of my path, and I adjusted my sled slightly to be parallel with the direction he was running. Now I prepared to strike. I slowly rose on my sled, abandoning all steering, as I began to overtake the Green-jacket kid. Now was the time. I tried twice to jump free of the sled, but I was too timid. To avoid wasting more time, I simply stepped out of the sled and let my dear friend - inertia - carry me. I half ran, half stumbled toward the scrambling kid. Like a helpless, scared rabbit he ran, but was still no match for my borrowed speed. Wrapping my right arm around his torso, I deserted my footing and stability. At that moment, if I held my stance any longer, I would lose my prey. Pushing down with my arm, I threw him face first into the snow. Some guilt went through me, although it was quickly snuffed by the overflowing gratification of a successful mission. Besides, snow is the softest cushion in nature. It probably didn’t hurt that bad. Probably. I collapsed a moment later, although I recovered much faster than the Green-jacket kid. I loosed a triumphant bellow as I stood, wiping the snow from my eyes to find my allies. Naturally, they were still watching from their perch at the top of the hill. Unfortunately for me, however, so were the Green-jacket kid’s allies, and they were much, much closer than my allies. Uh-oh. I fought with all the snow I could, but to no avail. Slowly but certainly, I was driven into the snow, just like the Green-jacket kid, and repaid for my sins, with snow down every crevice of my jacket and several fresh indentations bearing prints of my grimacing face in the fresh powder snow. |
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This fall we had four programs for FIRST Lego League, FIRST Robotics Competition teams, Festival of Trees Preparation (with results above), and From Sheep to Shawl. |
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@ Maine Stream Place’s Shop 5th – 8th grade students Monday 1:30 – 3:00 PM, and Friday 1:30 -3:30 PM, Fall Season: September 8th – December 15th; January 5th - February 3rd State Competition, Brewer, smaller groups will meet at other times as arranged by Coach Monica Tuition: $25.00 (Scholarships available)
Each student will receive: a team t-shirt
What is FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge? FIRST LEGO League Challenge is one of three divisions by age group of the FIRST® LEGO® League program and serves children ages 9-16. This program inspires young people to experiment and grow their confidence, critical thinking, and design skills through hands-on learning. FIRST LEGO League was created through an alliance between FIRST® and LEGO® Education. Here is a link to an overview of this year's game: Masterpiece
And, here is all the data that FIRST has about this year's game: Challenge, Updates, & Resources | FIRST (firstinspires.org). |
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Knights of Katahdin Pre-Season Training |
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@ Maine Stream Place’s Shop 8th – 12th grade students (or 7th with Coach permission) Monday and Thursday afternoons 5:30 – 7:30 PM, Fall Pre-Season: September 7th – Christmas vacation, excluding holidays Tuition through April: $75.00 (Scholarships available) Each student will receive: 2 team t-shirts and a hoodie in February Students may need to be interviewed for ability to adhere to shop standards before being allowed to participate.
Students will be trained how to use shop equipment to prepare for FIRST Competition season starting in January 6th, 2024 Time is of the essence, if you are interested or have questions contact us at info@mainestreamplace.org |
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Competition Season Schedule |
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@ Maine Stream Place’s Shop January 6th, January 7th - April 20th
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Hay, do ewe remember me? Several ladies met at Bean's Corner Baptist Church for 5 weeks in October and November, on Thursday afternoons from 1:30 - 3:30, to learn about how wool can be processed by hand from after sheering to knitting or crocheting with the yarn. Here's what a couple of ladies said: "I liked learning about the process of preparing wool to spin into yarn and spinning it into yarn. I also enjoyed meeting and talking with the other participants." "It was nice to sit and chat and knit getting to know others better and Lily enjoyed hands on spinning wheel time." Thanks to everyone who participated. Wonder what we will do next. If you have suggestions, you can contact us and let us know. |
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Great News! This trailer was donated by the Roberts family. We will use this trailer to bring our robot and our pit tools to competitions! We also received $2500 grant from the Gene Haas Foundation. You can follow them on: Instagram @genehaasfoundation TikTok genehaasfoundation X (twitter) @ghaasfoundation Facebook genehaasfoundation Linked In Gene Haas Foundation #genehaasfoundation #haas #haasgives #genehaas In addition, we got a $6000 grant from NASA to pay for registration fees for our first 2 competitions. Tax Resolution Specialists, Inc. contributed $5000. Farmington Chiropractic donated $1000. We also received about $45 in bottle donations through Ron's market and numerous personal donations from various families. We have also applied to all the local banks to see if they can also help with grants. Every bit helps when we have a $50,000 budget to fill in order to be ready to go to World Competition in Houston, TX. |
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We are available for meetings and shop tours. Call our landline and leave a message or email us to set up a time to see us in person! Also, you can connect with us on social media; our Instagram is @mainestreamplace | | |
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