Robotics Team Readies For Competitions

Mentor, Donald Fisher works with Huntington High School students, Anthony Amitrano, Nick Bozsnyak and Patrick Langton to build a robot.

By Sophia Ricco
sricco@longislandergroup.com

You can create anything you put your mind to and the Huntington High School Robotics team is a prime example of this, with four World Championships in the bag the Robotics team is looking to have another sensational year.

But robot parts don’t come cheap. This is why Huntington Robotics Incorporated is hosting their third annual Robotics Fundraiser on Nov. 5 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Launchpad of Huntington, 315 Main Street. It will be a fun, casual cocktail party with beer provided by Six Harbors Brewery and food by Babalu Cuban Bistro.

Huntington Robotics Incorporated is a nonprofit that supports Team 5016 through fundraising money and providing mentors. President of the Parent Association of Huntington Robotics, Peggy Low, got involved through her son and daughter’s participation in the group. She admires the clubs values of building and involvement with STEM, their community outreach and the business skills it teaches students, but admits that the venture is a costly one.

“Running a competitive robotics team with the FIRST organization, our league, is a very expensive endeavour,” Low said. “The entry fee to a competition is $5,000 and we try to do two competitions a year.”

Huntington High School has been a great help to the team by giving them financial support for competitions and transportation, but this funding still is not enough to completely run Team 5016. This leaves it up to Huntington Robotics Incorporated to fundraise and the high school students to secure corporate sponsors. If a parent gets a lead from a corporate sponsor, they will tell the students and help make the introduction, but after that they step back.

“The students themselves have to communicate with the corporate sponsor, try to get an appointment for a presentation, make a pitch presentation and close the deal,” Low said.

It is truly up to the students to run their team, with advising from faculty members, Omar Santiago and Brian Reynolds. The kids have a business plan and voting procedures, along with governing themselves. This fall Huntington Robotics students have been planning and coordinating their community outreach, as well as crafting a method on how they will educate and train next year’s team.

For the team, their community outreach is a major component of their season. Team 5016 wants to promote STEM learning in the area through initiatives and meeting with other students. Coming up, the team will be holding a Women’s Empowerment Symposium on Nov. 19 that is open for all to attend.

“We’ve gotten a lot of kids involved in the community with STEM that didn’t think they were interested,” Low said. “The kids basically do everything themselves.”

From where it began in 2013, with around nine students involved, the Robotics team has grown with over 50 students, many of them female and spanish speaking students. In their six years as a team, Team 5016 has attended four World Championships. Their most recent being in Detroit last April.

Looking forward to this year’s World Championships, the group will not know any of the details of the challenge until January 5th, when the FIRST League releases it. From there, they have six weeks to build a robot that will score them as many points as possible. It is “a lot like a real world problem”, because it requires being solved quickly while also working well.

“Once they release the ways in which the robot can score points, the designers of the robots, the programmers and the developers, who are students, sit down together for a week or two to come up with a prototype of what they want to build,” Low said.

A team like Team 5016 gives students the ability to work together for a common goal, while showing them strengths they may never have known they possessed.

“Many don’t realize that their particular skill set that they already have - whether it’s leadership, the ability to do coding, or they’re just good builders - can be applied to a team effort like robotics,” Low said. “Robotics is sort of like a sports team for the mind.”

Parents of the robotics team, board of education members and administration members from the school district, and sponsors will be attending the event. All are invited and welcomed to attend and support Team 5016. Tickets are on sale for the event for $75. Purchase by visiting team5016.com.

Northport Man Arrested After 'Proud Boys'' Melee

Northport resident Douglas Lennan appears in Manhattan Criminal Court following his arrest on riot and assault charges for a clash that occurred between right- and left-wing extremists groups in Manhattan this month. Pool photo/William Miller

By Sophia Ricco
sricco@longislandergroup.com

A Northport man was among five men arrested in the wake of a violent clash earlier this month outside the Metropolitan Republican Club that made national headlines.

Douglas Lennan, 40, of Northport was charged with riot and assault by New York City Police after the far-right organization Proud Boys clashed with members of the far-left, anti-facist movement Antifa on Oct. 12. The fight broke out after Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes made a speech at the Metropolitan Republican Club on New York’s upper east side. Video of the brawl obtained by police and released to aid in the search for suspects resulted in additional arrests, including Lennan’s.

A spokesman for the NYPD Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information, confirmed Lennan was taken into custody by police in the 19th Precinct at approximately 10:45 a.m., Oct. 22. He was arraigned that day in Manhattan Criminal Court.

Lennan was represented by a Legal Aid attorney at his arraignment. His next apearance is Oct. 30.

The all-male Proud Boys is an extremist organization whose members advocate against “political correctness” and “white guilt,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

On a show streamed on the Compound Media platform, McInnes claimed western culture is superior, racism is a construct invented to make white people feel guilty, Islam advocates for violence and feminism exists to take away men’s masculinity.

Good Cause Helps With Marathon Training

With help from his fiancé, Kathy Wagner, Vogel has been training by running 5ks, 10ks, and half marathons.

By Sophia Ricco
sricco@longislandergroup.com

Running a marathon is a huge challenge to undertake, but as Sean Vogel of Huntington proves, anything is possible when you have a cause that you are passionate about to motivate you.

The New York City Marathon is approaching, and Vogel has been hard at work training for the race and raising money for his charity, United Way of Long Island. He will be running the 26.2 mile race for the first time on Monday, Nov. 4.

“The distance is more than I’ve ever done, but I’m confident in my ability,” Vogel said. “From a guy who four years ago, never run, smoked a pack and half of cigarettes a day, and I weighed almost 400 pounds. I quit smoking and dropped a ton of weight, so every year my goal has gotten a little bit tougher.”

For last four years, Vogel has been on a journey of dedication. After being shocked by the number on the scale, Vogel went to his sister for help. She had a friend put together a workout and diet plan for him to follow.

Vogel began walking around the neighborhood, progressed to jogging and in time has run 5ks, 10ks and half marathons. Now, he will be taking on his biggest race yet, running for Team Mission United and the 120,000 veterans and military families in Nassau and Suffolk that the organization supports.

“I am truly honored and humbled to be doing this on behalf of the United Way,” Vogel said.

The program assists veterans with many services, like employment readiness, emergency financial assistance, case management support and housing.

“Honoring our veterans and doing everything we can for them is major part of my life,” Vogel said. “I specifically look to go out and do everything I can do support that.”

As a charity partner of the New York City marathon, United Way’s team of four runners are tasked at raising $15,000, with each runner encouraged to raise $3,000. Vogel feels confident he will be able to raise his share with the help of his co-workers at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Many have donated and help spread the word about his cause.

Sean Vogel of Huntington will be taking on the 26.2 mile course of the NYC Marathon on Nov. 4.

“I’m lucky enough that I work in a place like Enterprise, where we all work together, it’s all about teamwork,” Vogel said. “I’m friends with a lot of these people outside of work and we support each other. When you’re passionate about something, everyone around you rallies around and comes together and help you anyway they can.”

Vogel became involved with the United Way through Enterprise, which encourages employees to support the charity through charitable acts and financial giving. He has been the leader of the employee giving campaign and has helped sort donations for the United Way.

“Enterprise is extremely proud to be sponsoring a Team Mission United runner for the second time,” said Henry Hong, Regional Vice President at Enterprise Holdings. “Sean is a dedicated employee, and we know that he will bring that drive and passion to helping raise awareness for the struggles that veterans on Long Island face each day.”

His devotion to the United Way of Long Island comes from his close connection to veteran causes and the charity’s outreach helping those on Long Island.

“When I look for races, I try to find races that benefit veterans specifically,” Vogel said. “My grandfathers were in WWII, my sister and brother-in-law both went to the Naval Academy and I went to SUNY Maritime. I love to give back and support veterans, doing my part to ensure they are being taken care of. I run to support those who maybe are unable to run themselves, or just need the support of their community.”

To prepare for the marathon, Vogel has been running many races that support the armed forces. He recently ran the Army 10 Mile Race in Washington, D.C. and has completed around 50 races just on Long Island, but none as long as the marathon.

“It’s challenging, you look at it and think 26.2 miles is longer than my drive to work,” Vogel said. “It’s an intimidating number but you know I am confident in my abilities of how far I’ve come and what I can do, that I will be able to do it.”

Vogel has been running and cross training in the gym with his fiancé Kathy Wagner, who ran the NYC Marathon two years ago for Team Mission United. As an experienced marathon runner, she has been guiding and motivating him.

“On days when you go, ‘Oh my god, I just ran 10 miles and I’m exhausted, how am I gonna do another 16.2?’ She does for me what I did for her,” Vogel said. “She tells me, ‘You’re gonna be fine, relax. You’re gonna be okay, you got this. This is just training.’”

With a cause to motivate him and streets lined with people cheering him on, Vogel is looking forward to completing his first marathon for the United Way.

“Everybody has their own reasons for doing anything, but as long as you’re passionate about it, you can be successful,” Vogel said. “You can do anything and this is coming from a guy who was 400 pounds and was smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, who can now run an eight minute mile. Set your mind to a goal and you will accomplish it, but it won’t come overnight.”