Girl Scout team wins FIRST LEGO League state championship

WOLFEBORO — A tiny team of Girl Scouts won the state FIRST LEGO League tournament in Windham on Sunday, Jan. 16, qualifying for the World Festival in Texas this spring.

Years of teamwork, experience, and determination paid off for the Electric Llamas of Wolfeboro, who have been competing in this level of FIRST Robotics, open to grades 4-8. The competition requires participants to program a small robot to complete a variety of tasks unassisted — this year with a theme of transportation, called Cargo Connect, in which competitors are asked to “build creative solutions that will revolutionize the future.”

The Electric Llamas are all Girl Scout Cadettes, and attend Kingswood Regional Middle School. They are Adrianna Noel, 14; Avalyn Lambert, 13; and Evelyn Hafner, 14, all of Wolfeboro. They, along with other members over the years, have competed at LEGO League for six years. They also won the Innovation Project Award at a qualifying tournament in Merrimack on Dec. 11. They created a concept for a GPS device called NAVii that would aid truckers on the road, similar to Garmin and Waze.

“Our team is three people, but everyone does what they like,” said Avalyn. “Evelyn and Adrianna like the robot and I like the project.”

To win, the girls created a presentation that explains the concept, explained it in person to a team of questioners, and even created a commercial for what they hope will become a real-life device.

The team used their Girl Scout connection to investigate the needs of truckers through a former Girl Scout council member who now drives a large truck, Deb King with Lily Transportation. They got to see the inside of her vehicle and learn just what it takes to deliver the goods across the country.

“It was kind of intimidating at first,” said Avalyn. “They have to use one major system — Garmin. It’s just a regular navigation system, but it has things like weight and stuff. Our project — it’s just better, more inclusive. It would update constantly. Deb said they didn’t update at a constant rate, so truck stops or rest areas would be closed.”

The Electric Llamas plan to travel to Texas to compete with teams from around the world. BAE Systems is paying their $1,000 competition registration fee, but the team now needs to raise the money necessary to travel to Houston for the April World Festival.

“This is just unbelievable!” said Briar Rose Lambert, team coach, Girl Scout troop leader, and mother to Avalyn. “The judges told us later that the tipping point between the top two teams was the girls’ energy and teamwork. Their level of respect for each other and general love of working together was what inched them ahead!”