DEARBORN — A fundraiser was held at the Lebanese American Heritage Club (LAHC) on Saturday, April 19 for a Lebanese High School Robots Team that has been traveling across the globe and participating in competitions.

10 students who are part of Hassan Kassir High School’s “Tic Tac Toe” team in Beirut, Lebanon, are here in the U.S. to gear up for the World Robot Championship taking place in St. Louis this week. 

The league is a robotics program for 9 to 16-year-olds, designed to get children excited about science and technology. The mission of the group is to teach students valuable employment and life skills. 

In previous years, teams of up to 10 kids have programmed an autonomous robot using a “Lego Robotics Mindstorms” set to score points on a thematic playing surface. They also have to create an innovative solution to a problem as part of their project.  

The group established the ‘First Lego League’ in 2010 and began competing in worldwide competitions to great success.

Their victories began in the Middle East where they took first place in the “Lebanese Robot Championship” in 2012 and 2013. They also took home a first place prize in “The Open Arab Championship” in 2012 in Beirut, and also in 2013, when the event was hosted in Egypt. 

Their success continued when they won first place in “In the Open European Championship” in Germany in both 2012 and 2013. Now, they are looking to continue their hot streak in the U.S. this week. 

The coach of the team, Mohammad Beiruty, gave the attendants a presentation in which he explained his team’s history in participating in the Lego Robotics challenge.

Hussein Hachem, President of LAHC’s Youth Leadership Program, told those in attendance that the organization was delighted to host an event unrelated to war and suffering.

“This is the first time that we do something out of Lebanon that is not related to war or social economic problems. This is something that we need to be very proud of,” Hachem said. 

Hachem added that he was proud to see high school students in Lebanon participating in an extracurricular activity on a global scale. As a former student from the country, he added that resources were usually limited and an activity of this nature was unheard during his time. 

“Despite these conditions, this group was able to create something out of nothing. I can’t explain how excited I am for you guys,” Hachem told the students in attendance.

Ned Fawaz, founder of the Lebanese International Business Council, also spoke at the event. Fawaz was the main sponsor of the dinner held at the LAHC. He told the crowd that Arab youths in the U.S. suffer the same setbacks as those in Lebanon. There is limited participation in extracurricular activities that include technology, sports and science.   

“We need to succeed in sports. We need to have continuous support in sports because this is a big thing in America and around the world. We need heroes in sports and we don’t have that,” he added. 

Fawaz also added that the community comes up short in other areas like entertainment and music. Fawaz commended the group of high school students, telling them that the future of the country relies on the success of the youth.

The team will represent Lebanon in the World Robot Championship in St. Louis from April 23-26. This year its project involved robots that help find victims of disasters through tracking their phone signal.