On Saturday, February 3, more than 600 middle and high school students from 42 schools in Virginia and Maryland are meeting at Heritage High School to test their teamwork and ingenuity at the FIRST Tech Eastern Virginia Qualifier, a robotics competition. The free event runs from 7:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and is open to the public. Winners will go to compete at the FIRST Tech Challenge Virginia Championship sponsored by ECPI University in Richmond on February 24th. This is the first time in seven years that the event has come to Newport News and organizers are looking to the community for support in the form of volunteers. 

To help the competition  go smoothly, the event is in urgent need of volunteers. Volunteers must be at least 13 years old and experience is not necessary. High school students who require community service hours to graduate are welcome to participate. Volunteers receive free lunch and snacks during the event. Some of the positions available include timekeeper, scorekeeper, competition field resetters, queue manager, referees, pit manager/runner and more. Click here to learn more about volunteering and to sign up and click here to learn more about the competition.