On Wednesday, May 21, 2025, the LigerBots planted American flags in memory of and in respect for deceased veterans as part of the flag planting ceremony for Memorial Day at the Newton Cemetery & Arboretum.

Flag planting is done to honor the service and sacrifice of deceased veterans by placing flags at their graves, a small yet powerful gesture of remembrance and respect.

Because Memorial Day was coming up, in honor of the veterans, we joined Mr. Mazzola, who is a veteran and the liaison to the Veterans Office. Alongside the other flag planting volunteers, we planted between 600 to 800 flags!

The annual flag planting at the Newton Cemetery for Memorial Day is a long tradition for LigerBots Coach Greer Swiston. This year marked her 22nd year of planting flags at the Newton Cemetery.

It was a good day for flag planting this year since there was little rain. We look forward to flag planting next year!

On Sunday, May 25th, we marched in the annual Memorial Day Parade in Newton. This is a recurring event for our team and an excellent way to spread awareness about robotics in our community.

We met at Newton North High School to set up before the parade, bringing both the blue banners we won this season and our 2025 competition robot. While we were setting up, we were approached by Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller who expressed her support for our team.

While marching in the parade, we drove our outreach robot along the course and used it to play catch with people along the parade course. In addition to this, we also passed out info flyers for our upcoming FLL Info Night on June 18th to encourage interest in STEAM. .

After walking through Newtonville on Walnut and Watertown Streets, we ended at Coletti-Magni Park in Nonantum. We were cheered on by many people including Mayor Ruthanne Fuller and several local politicians.

After the parade, we got free ice cream, which is a courtesy of Cabot Ice Cream, a long standing local business that always supports the community. It was a nice way to unwind and socialize before we packed up and left. We hope to continue doing this event in the future!

On Sunday May 18th, we marched in the Wellesley Parade for the third year in a row with our friends from Wellesley, Ultraviolet (FRC team 8567).

Before the parade, we arrived early to pack our robot into the truck driven by a coach from Ultraviolet. We had some downtime before the parade started, so we socialized and enjoyed snacks brought by Ultraviolet. This was a good chance to connect with our friends and strengthen inter-team bonds.

While we were marching, Thaddeus shot playground balls for spectators to catch.
This was a great way to make ourselves entertaining and to spread an interest in robotics.

In addition to our team bringing Thaddeus, Ultraviolet also brought their robot. Together, Thaddeus and Ultraviolet’s robot looked great on display and the parade judges liked our float so much that we got the award for Best Youth Float for the second year in a row!

After the parade, we went to Truly’s Ice Cream in Wellesley Square with Ultraviolet. It was another nice opportunity to socialize and express our shared love of robotics. We hope to do this event again in future years!

On May 10th 2025, the LigerBots attended the Healthy Kids Day Event at the West Suburban YMCA. This event is designed to inspire kids to be healthy, active, and engaged.

We brought multiple STEAM activities to the event, one being our 2022 robot, where the robot’s driver shoots a playground ball for students to catch. We also brought some of our other popular STEAM activities, like binary beads and skeleton handprints.

Many students at the YMCA Healthy Kids Day event enjoyed our STEAM activities and engaging with the 2022 robot. In the near future, we plan to introduce our new outreach robot at events. This robot is almost done being tested.

Outreach season is a busy time for our team and we have a bunch of upcoming STEAM events! Coming up we have the Memorial Day Flag Planting on May 21st and Parade on May 25th. Hope to see you there!

On May 1st, the LigerBots brought STEAM activities and our 2022 robot to the Lincoln-Eliot Elementary School science fair. At the fair, elementary school students showcased their science projects and engaged in STEAM oriented student-led activities.

We brought our 2022 robot, which we are temporarily using while we finish building our outreach robot, specifically made for our outreach events, and also three STEAM activities including Binary Beads, Skeleton Handprints “X-Ray”, and Tangrams.

Many students at the fair were excited to see the robot and engaged with the STEAM activities. For the first time in a while, we brought Tangrams, which were popular alongside our other activities. Tangrams are puzzles where you first cut out shapes from a square piece of paper and then combine to create interesting figures.

Although it is a busy time of year for students due to AP exams and SATs, we were lucky to be able to get more than enough staffing and the event ended up being a success!

At the end of the Science Fair, pizza was available. We were happy to enjoy some pizza after our hard work at the event.

We hope to see you at one of our many upcoming outreach events including:
Town of Wellesley Parade where we’ll march with team Ultraviolet (Team 8567) from 12 pm to 3 pm on Sunday, May 18th, starting at 181 Washington St, Wellesley Hills, MA in Wellesley Square
Newton Memorial Parade on Sunday, May 25th, starting at Newton North High School at 3 pm and we will march until we reach Coletti-Magni Park