LEGO League starts up in Tea

Youth in Tea are gathering as teams to build robots and LEGOs.

LEGO League coach Michelle DeYoung said interest has been high with 50 students coming to the informational meeting and 40 signing up.

“We’re learning as we go,” DeYoung said.

DeYoung first heard about the LEGO League when she helped at the summer LEGO camps at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Tea. Embe sponsored the camp.

DeYoung received a grant from the Tea Area Community Fund this spring to help get the league started.

“This is really cool. Tea is big enough. We’ve got enough kids — we’ve got to have interest in this,” she said.

Besides her youngest son being interested, sixth-grader Ashton Smit also enjoys LEGOs. He loves LEGOs and enjoys building at home.

“I thought it would be fun to build and then coding, what you would learn. And then it would be a lot of fun to work with some people that you would know and you might learn something about them that you didn’t know,” Smit said.

Smit got to work with some robotics in fourth grade through Project Lead the Way at school. He is looking forward to coding and the competition coming up.

“I love getting all that excited energy going through my body,” he said. “I would probably build areas and stuff. I may build a marvel or any kind of thing that looks fun and tests my skills.”

DeYoung is thankful DeGeest Steel Works has stepped up to fund the league in Tea.

“It’s super exciting to have their support,” she said.

As part of that partnership, their club was able to tour DeGeest Steel Works last week during Manufacturing Week.

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