Headed to New Orleans March 26-30 for a competition, Greenville High School’s Robotics team - the Robowranglers - won’t be taking along just students and mentors.

The team’s bus will be loaded down with school supplies for a local elementary school re-establishing after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

GHS teacher and Robotics sponsor Vanessa Pope said competing in a regional competition the team has never before attended is a challenge within itself.  But when deciding on the New Orleans meet, Pope said team members knew they couldn’t go without doing something for the people “working so hard to give normalcy back to the city.”

"In October, we asked the manager of the hotel where we are staying if she would help us find an organization or a group who needed help,” said Pope.  “Of course, we had limited resources ourselves, so we asked her to find us something doable that we could accomplish.”

As the holiday season approached, no one had made contact with the high school group.  But in early February, a phone call finally gave the team a New Orleans connection.  A hotel staff member had a child in elementary school and asked if it would be appropriate to submit the school as a possible point of contact for the robotics team.

That led Pope to call the school’s principal.

"I was expecting a wish list that possibly we could get some of the items, but trying to meet the needs of an elementary school, I thought would almost be impossible for a team of 25 students,” said Pope.

Completely humbled by the simple request for some much-needed items, the team has set a goal of providing one item for each of the 750 students.

"This list really made us realize that the simple things in life really do count for so very much,” said GHS senior and team member Trent Jones.

The school is asking for highlighters, gel pens, dry erase markers and dry erasers, boxes of crayons and small prizes for the positive behavior box.

"I asked surely there is something more, something big that we can set as a goal and the reply was these are the things that would make a difference, these are what they really needed," said Pope.

Students on the team have made presentations to the classes at GHS, talking to church youth groups and some have even addressed entire church congregations to get items donated.

Teachers at the high school have collected items and are working to help the robotics team meet the goal of 750 items.

"We learned that the prizes for the ‘positive behavior box’ present a challenge because the school would like to have enough items on hand that on any given day every student in the school could have a prize, " added Jones.

Any individual or service club wanting to make a donation to the school supply drive can contact Pope at GHS or email her at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   She said the Robotics team is more than willing to pick up donated items, also.

While competing in St. Louis, MasterCard gave every team present a $100 Debit Card to use for team expenses. The robotics students decided to use their debit card to purchase school supplies.

The deadline for contributing to the drive is Monday, March 24.

"It's going to be a unique experience going to New Orleans and I want our students to realize it is our responsibility to give back to a community that has lost so much,” said Pope.  “They are willing to host this enormous competition in the midst or re-building, this is the least we can do.”