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our history

Kod Red:
In 1997 Mr. Gene Gordon and 27 students formed the original Fairport FIRST team, Kod-Red team 36. The name Kod-Red came from our
original sponsor, Kodak, and our school's mascot, the Red Raider.

kod red logo

The logo for the team was designed by students at Fairport High School through a school wide contest. The first regional the team ever competed in was the Mid-Atlantic Regional. At this regional, we won a Judge's Award for our robot's unique function.
One year later, we changed our team number to 52 though our name remained the same. The team competed once again in the Mid- Atlantic regional.

The FIA Years:
Due to some changes at Kodak, our team was left sponsorless. Fortunately, we were adopted by The Gleason Works, which still sponsors our team today. We re-registered as Team 277 FIA, which stood for Fairport Intelligence Agency, making it all the way to the championship.

Blue Lightning :
After events in the news changed the public's view of trench coats, the team decided to change its name to Blue Lightning. Blue is one of our school's colors, and the lightning symbolizes the team's energy. Our original slogan that went along with the name was "Thunder makes the noise, but lightning does the work".

blue lightning logo

We held another school wide art contest to come up with a new logo. The team ended up winning the Philadelphia Regional in 2000, and the Nasa Langley- VCU Regional in 2001. Every year we compete in FIRST, our team learns a lot about building, 3D animation, marketing, and much more. But even more important is the impact FIRST has had on the team. In 2005, 100% of the members went on to college to study something related to science and technology, and all of the members that have gone through the program have graduated from high school.

 

Copyright © 2007 Team 578 Fairport New York