Bloomfield Hills Team Wins Four Awards At Kettering Kickoff

 Las Guerrillas Team 469 from Bloomfield Hills, took several of the top honors at the 11th annual Kettering Kickoff FIRST Robotics event in Flint Saturday, Sept. 18.  About 1,000 visitors attended the 11th annual Kettering Kickoff.
 
The Las Guerrillas won The Robot Design Award and No. 1 Seed Award, as well as sharing The Top Score of the Day honors and the Big Dog award for second-place overall trophy.
 
The Kettering Kickoff attracted 39 teams this year, including one from Israel.  The Kickoff is an off-season event for FIRST Robotics teams.  The event is an opportunity for teams to practice skills and build teamwork prior to the opening of the FIRST competition season in January.
 
Other top honors at the Kettering Kickoff went to:
 
* The Safety Award -- Foley Freeze, Team 910, of Madison Heights.
* The "Long Shot" Award -- FG-Tamra from Israel for traveling the farthest to participate
* Top Score of the Day was shared by Team 469, Las Guerrillas of Bloomfield Hills; Team 910, Foleys Freeze of Madison Heights, and Team 2145, the HazMats of Fenton
* The Spirit of FIRST Award - Team 1189, Gearheads of Grosse Pointe
 
The Big Dog Award (second-place in the tournament) was shared by Team 469, Las Guerrillas of Bloomfield Hills; Team 548, Robostangs of Northville; and Team 910, Foley's Freeze of Madison Heights.
 
Overall winner of the tournament, The Top Dog Award, went to first-place winners:
Team 494, The Martians of Goodrich
Team 1243, The Dragons of Swartz Creek and
Team 2619, The Charge of Midland.
 
A new award, The 'Kick Hunger' Award -- a food drive on behalf of the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan -- was won by Team 314, Big Mo of Flint, with 1,845 pounds of food donated.  In all, the faculty, staff and students of Kettering University and the participants of the Kettering Kickoff donated 3,525 pounds of food to the Food Bank.

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