Obstacles such as bumper problems, the main student driving the robot being sick, and a lower ranking that did not reflect their actual performance were not enough to stop them and the Churrobots managed to remain competitive.

An East Palo Alto robotics team is headed to Houston, TX to take part in the world championship competition. The Hope Horizon East Palo Alto ChurroBots are a community-based team, with over a dozen students from different area high schools.

Hope Horizon East Palo Alto, which has been operating since 1984 and whose main mission is “to equip east-of-Bayshore youth to grow spiritually, gain life skills and develop as leaders so that they have hope and a future,” held a successful 2023 Gala at The Grand Bay Hotel in Redwood City, CA last March 19.

For the past three years, a dozen-or-so East Palo Alto middle- and high-schoolers have been experimenting with basic motors, electrical engineering, computer vision, hydraulics, machining, pneumatics and software development with one goal in mind: Build a robot.

Current TUFs are working to build a new park at an underutilized lot near Bayshore Christian Ministries in East Palo Alto. Over the course of the last nine months and several semesters, Dorsey said, students have gone through the landscape design process.

Go to 20:11 to see coverage.
“This means a lot to us. This is like our first time that we ever won. This is the farthest we’ve ever made it. The second that we heard we were going [to the world championship] we all started jumping, we all started screaming. The moment was blissful. It was just so amazing.” -Angel Fernandez, Churrobots member

El equipo llamado ChurrosBots construyó un robot y ahora irán a Texas a mostrar sus habilidades.

Hope Horizon East Palo Alto (previously Bayshore Christian Ministries), which teaches life skills to youth, is also among the recipients. “This vote of confidence in the work we have been doing in East Palo Alto and eastern Menlo Park since 1984 is a great encouragement to our community of students, families, churches, volunteers, donors and prayer warriors,” Executive Director Tiffany Hong said in a statement.

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A NEW DAY HAS DAWNED … For nearly four decades, Bayshore Christian Ministries has given community members opportunities to form bonds in East Palo Alto and Belle Haven. This week, the nonprofit announced its new name: Hope Horizon East Palo Alto. The fresh name aims “to more accurately reflect its vision and hope to the community it services,” according to a press release.

A group of elementary- and middle school-aged children is learning the art of teamwork while building robots out of Legos.

MEAN MACHINES … A group of students from East Palo Alto schools celebrated a big victory earlier this month when their team crushed it in a regional robotics competition and booked its ticket to Houston for the World Championships.

Story about the FIRST Robotics Competition team

Palo Alto and East Palo Alto residents are invited to celebrate National Night Out with police officers this Tuesday. The local gatherings, among many planned across the country, aim to promote police relations with the community and “make our neighborhoods safer, more caring places to live,” according to the event website.

Bayshore Christian Ministries was honored for its "Field of Hope," which was built with the help of Palo Alto native Jeremy Lin.

The four girls created their app in 12 weeks, working on two borrowed laptops for just four hours each week at Bayshore Christian Ministries in East Palo Alto.