We recruited teams from our surrounding community high schools such as La Puente, Huntington Park, and South East, assisted the Fremont and Chilean teams, and housed the materials of the Brazilian team. Although, at first it was a challenge to convince these teams to join FIRST, through persistence and extending our sincere support they decided to be part of the new cool. We hosted various meetings before the kick off to teach the students the proper etiquette of using tools, effective communication, and team management. We are glad that the energy and excitement we felt during the kick off this year persisted through the building season.

We not only want to invite teams to become part of FIRST, but we want to guide them through what can be a very difficult, full of challenge process. Mostly FIRST is an opportunity to grow as a team, as a rookie participant. We keep constant communication with other teams that may need our help through Facebook, email, Skype, text messaging, visits and phone calls. Sessions every Saturday and, when needed, Sundays, help us extend our help. We invite teams that we support to come visit our school any day to use our shop and our tools. As we sit together with these other schools to enjoy our lunch we discuss many of the problems we have faced before and how they can avoid them. A phrase that seems to pop-up during our conversations is "You can learn a lot from our mistakes, you will know what NOT to do." Our focus is not to help create a rookie team that wins the nationals, but rather one that can develop the skills needed to continue being a part of FIRST. This way the influence of FIRST travels further and for an extended period of time.

Our resources allow us to help teams like the Brazilian and Chilean teams. We extend our help during the competition and Skype regularly with them to discuss the progress and funding for their team. If needed, we provide the funding for some of their team members to travel to competitions. The Chilean team often uses our workshop when they visit. This gives us an opportunity to spend time together as they allow us to view a glimpse of their culture and make friendships that will last a life time. Spending time with them outside of school helps us form strong bonds and connections. The engineers that help us throughout the building process often Skype with these teams. This way they have similar resources to the other teams we assist. The Robo-Skunks believe strongly that everyone, regardless of their location on this planet, deserves an equal opportunity to discover their inner innovative engineer.