dgrossman@mauinews.com
Mark Ragonton, a Molokai seventh grader, holds the teamâs robot that will be competing at the 2021 VEX Robotics Remote World Championship in May. Photos courtesy of Edwin Mendija
Despite having to learn and construct a robot remotely amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of Molokai students persevered to qualify for the 2021 VEX Robotics Remote World Championship.
Eighth graders Maesilyn Yuen and Kalau’ihi Kaai and seventh graders Genesis Nakihei and Mark Ragonton spent the COVID-restricted season passing a robot back and forth between their homes, learning and building remotely with each other.
“I think things ran pretty smoothly, even if we were just talking online and not seeing each other for like three days,” Yuen said during a Zoom call last week. ” . . . That’s one of my favorite things about VEX, is meeting a bunch of different people and I also get to learn more things about STEM, which is always fun to do.”
lfujimoto@mauinews.com
Lt. Joy Medeiros (left) and Sgt. Jan Pontanilla stand by the new Mobile Medical Educational Unit that will be used to help provide outreach to homeless people. MAUI POLICE DEPARTMENT photos
WAILUKU Homeless residents will be able to seek mental health counseling, noncritical medical care and other services in one location when the Maui Police Department launches its Mobile Medical Educational Unit.
“It’s something that was needed,” said Sgt. Jan Pontanilla, who heads the MPD Critical Outreach and Response through Education, or CORE program, that will work with other groups at the unit.
The services will be offered in a 2007 El Dorado 40-foot bus, donated by the county Department of Transportation, that will be stationed for a month at a time in Kahului, Kihei or Lahaina.