To continue competing at a high level and to keep our students working safely and efficiently, we need your help to complete our newest engineering project: a mobile competition workspace or Super Pit.

The Challenge: Overcoming Pit Chaos and Inefficiency

When our team travels to competitions, we operate out of a temporary 10'×10' space called a “pit”. During these intense, fast-paced events, every second counts. Matches happen back-to-back, and when a mechanism breaks or other part of the robot breaks, students have mere minutes to diagnose the issue, find the right tools, parts, and perform the fix.

Currently, the team relies on mismatched, disorganized storage bins and small, non-mobile toolboxes that we have collected over the years. This setup forces students to waste precious time searching through cluttered bins and boxes to find a specific wrench or spare part. This bottleneck slows down their ability to execute rapid repairs and limits our team’s efficiency when the pressure is on.

The Solution: Completing Our Custom “Super Pit”

To solve this, our students have designed a custom, integrated “Super Pit” using heavy-duty, industrial road cases. We were incredibly fortunate to have a generous sponsor donate a set of used road cases to get us started, and our team is currently hard at work modifying and rebuilding them. While the cases were donated to the team, there are still materials and parts that are needed to convert and outfit the cases for our use.

Specifically, there is one major missing piece to finish the build: a large rolling toolbox designed to fit perfectly inside the custom road case framing. This heavy-duty workstation will serve as the structural centerpiece of our mobile pit, providing:

  • Centralized Tool Organization: Dedicated drawers for every tool and specialized instrument, ensuring students can grab exactly what they need in an instant.
  • Integrated Workspace: A durable, heavy-duty top surface that gives students an immediate, robust workbench to modify and repair mechanisms right inside the pit.
  • Mobility and Safety: An integrated system where the toolbox safely locks into the custom road cases, allowing us to roll our entire inventory effortlessly from our practice facility straight into competition venues.
  • Professionalism: A cohesive, professional workspace that mirrors real-world engineering environments and showcases our team pride to judges and sponsors.

A good “Super Pit” will not just be used at competition events, but also in our shop keeping the students organized and equipped year round. By using the Super Pit in the shop year round, they are constantly training and preparing to compete at a high-level, knowing where to find the tools they need.

How You Can Help:

Aproximately $2400 is needed to convert the cases we have into a Super Pit. The largest cost is a heavy-duty rolling toolbox and the necessary mounting hardware to integrate it into our donated cases. In additon, we need to buy materials and supplies to convert the donated road cases into a Super Pit configuration.

  • $1,300 - 72” Heavy Duty Rolling Toolbox
  • $800 - Case Hardware needed to convert the cases
  • $200 - Workbench Top
  • $100 - Wiring & Lighting

Special recognition for this Project:

For any sponsor who contributes $500 or more specifically toward this campaign, we will prominently feature a custom sponsor plaque directly on the front of the pit cases, showcasing your support inside our custom road cases at all of our events. By investing in The Super Hornets, you aren’t just buying a piece of hardware; you are directly investing in the technical education of local youth and helping them turn donated materials into a world-class engineering station where students are inspired to pursue careers in engineering and manufacturing but are also equiped resources to develop those skills.

How to Give

As a registered 501(c)(3) organization, your donation to Super Hornets Robotics is tax-deductible.

  1. If you simply want to donate to help support our students and team, you may do so online and follow up by contacting us to let us know your gift was to support this initiative.
    Donate now!
  2. If you would like to give by check, or sponsor the team with a larger gift, please see the donation form in our sponsor packet for details on how to do so.

Your gift also qualifies for the benefits associated with our regular sponsorship tiers:

  • Platinum Partner ($5,000+): Large logo on our team banner, the competition robot, team T-shirts, and our official website.
  • Gold Partner ($2,500+): Medium logo on our team banner, the competition robot, team T-shirts, and our official website.
  • Silver Partner ($1,000+): Small logo on our team banner, the competition robot, team T-shirts, and our official website.
  • Bronze Partner ($100+): Your name featured on our team T-shirts and our official website.
  • Copper Partner (Any Amount): Your name proudly displayed on our official team website.

For more information on giving/sponsoring, see our Giving Page and Sponsor Packet and Sponsor Packet