TALON 540 helps support the community in many different ways, including projects that are based at Mill E. Godwin High School. The team is involved in several events such as Homecoming, various football games, pep rallies, and a recycling program. Every year the team participates in the Homecoming parade by making a float that incorporates robotic themes and providing a walking, cheering group to follow the float. At the Homecoming pep rally and football game, the team uses Lieutenant Shiny Sides, the T-shirt shooting robot to fire shirts into the crowd.
This year the team is implementing a program to promote awareness for the protection of the environment. In today’s society, citizens are realizing that efforts to conserve our air, water, land, and the vast diversity of life on Earth are worthwhile. The team is executing several programs this year. The first program will be educating Godwin High School’s students and faculty members with TALON’s Top Ten Tips to Respect Our Environment flyer, which is currently being created by team members. In addition, the team will place posters around school for a “Go Green” week in early February and will be sending out press releases. In addition, this year the team is incorporating “Healthy robots need a healthy environment…Or they’ll go up in smoke” buttons in the pit packages with the Ten Tips flyers for other robotics team. Another plan involves initiating a recycling program at school by disposing of scrap metals in an environmentally friendly manner. Because the team holds many extended meetings, a large amount of recyclable food and drink containers are gathered. The team will be adding these collected materials to the recycling drive, in addition to those materials gathered by the school. The team hopes that these small steps will be the initiation of promoting our campaign for the respect of the environment.