BY MAUREEN ORTH

Guess what? Our all-girls team the “Little Engineers” are international robotic champions! Thank you, you got us there! The RoboRAVE 2018 competition ended the weekend with our girls winning first place in the middle school category, beating boys teams from China, Japan, India, the US and Mexico.

This is an amazing accomplishment. We also want to congratulate our other great team, Digiminds, who were the youngest group in their category. They also made the finals, placing 7th out of 31 teams. They taught a thing or two to the older kids!

It was because of your generosity that these deserving children were able to travel much father than their “comunas” that cling to the mountains above Medellin. Thanks to your support, they not only experienced their first plane ride but also experienced the local attractions. The teams visited the Albuquerque Zoo, the Explorer Science Museum, and the Natural History Museum – where they saw dinosaur fossils and learned the science behind a dam.

They also visited and met children from Hayes Middle School, a STEM school in Albuquerque, visited a waterpark and enjoyed a picnic. Needless to say, much fun was had along with the learning!

From the bottom of my heart and theirs, I thank you for donating to this campaign and making their dreams come true. These deserving children are now living proof of the mission of the Marina Orth Foundation: to educate kids who can successfully compete in the 21st Century anywhere in the world. If you would like to help make more dreams come true: Please consider donating to the Marina Orth Foundation.