HAMMOND | The School City of Hammond’s robotics team is preparing to head to the world championship months after the program lost a major sponsor, placing its future in jeopardy.
The team obtained a $5,000 grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to keep the program afloat for this year, team volunteer Dee Jones said.
“It’s been everybody pulling together,” Jones said. “I guess it has made us become closer and more of a family to some degree. I don’t know if anybody thought we’d be where we are today. Our goal was to make sure we had a team, and a team that was ready to compete.”
Beatty International, a longtime mentor for the team, pulled its support because of the financial impact the company expected to incur from the city’s new scavenging ban. One of Beatty’s subsidiaries ran a retail yard for local scrappers, and proceeds generated by the business were used to support community activities.
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