FRC | FIRST Washington

FRC BIOCORE Blog: Volume 5

by Adrienne Collins | Aug 25, 2026 | FRC, Newsletter

First Coaches Chat of the season is scheduled for 7 pm September 24

That is the day that event preferencing opens up for teams. We will be walking through event preferencing, and take a high level look at the season. Make sure to have one coach attend. Click here to attend the meeting.

Boeing Team Grants opened this week

You can find more information on the firstinspires website here: https://www.firstinspires.org/programs/team-grant-opportunities Be sure to check it regularly for new team grant opportunities.

If you have a Boeing mentor, reach out to them to ensure that they apply asap. Funds will be available until they run out.

Calling all teams

Does your team have footage of outreach events, community service, or behind-the-scenes moments from this season? Send it our way. Email Rylie Pope, Marketing and Communications Manager at FIRST WA, at ryliep@firstwa.org by 8/28/2026.

Important Dates

Now: FIRST Washington Registration is Open

9-24: Coaches Chat

9-26 & 27: Storm Surge

10-3: OR Girls Gen

10-4: FIRST Chance

10-10 & 11: Bordie Blast Through Time

10-17 & 18: WA Girls Gen

10-25 & 26: Block Party

FRC BIOCORE Blog: Volume 4

by Adrienne Collins | Aug 18, 2026 | FRC, Newsletter

Off-Season Events

Looking for a fun way to have new members experience an event, try out a new mechanism, or network with other teams? Register to attend an off-season event this fall!

Off-season events are hosted and run by individual FRC teams, not FIRST Washington. This means each event’s participation requirement(s), fees, and timelines may vary. All events will utilize the REBUILT game.

Storm Surge

Dates: September 26 – 27

Location: Vancouver, WA

Come join Skyview Robotics for StormSurge on Saturday, September 26, and Sunday, September 27, 2026 at Skyview High School in Vancouver, WA. Yes, you read that correctly, this year StormSurge will be a two-day tournament! This will be an off-Season Rebuilt event with the official field. If you have any questions, please contact Luke Glassett at lucas.glassett@vansd.org or 360-921-2747. If emailing, please also CC gary.borghello@vansd.org.

Click here to register

Oregon Girls Generation and FIRST Chance

Dates:

Girls Gen October 3

FIRST Chance October 4

Location: Wilsonville, OR

Registration for Girls Gen and FIRST Chance

Both events are relaxed, welcoming, and focused on building experience, community, and excitement for the season ahead. Whether you’re mentoring rookies, building leadership, or just eager to get back on the field—don’t miss these chances to grow.

Please register soon and let us know your team will attend! We need to confirm there are enough teams, and early registration helps volunteers planning both events. Use this link to register.

- Wilsonville HS, 6800 SW Wilsonville Rd

- Girls Generation: This event gives underrepresented team members the chance to drive the robot and/or lead the pit crew, and gain confidence in competition roles – many for the first time. Contact us if your team would like to participate but you don’t have enough girls or non-binary students for a drive team.

- Sat, Oct 3

- Registration fee is $100.

- FIRST Chance: Your team’s chance to test, train, and learn! A competition for all team members to gain experience in new competition roles, especially students who are new to FRC.

- Sun, Oct 4

- Registration fee is $200 (lower fee this year!)

- Link to Register for both events.

Both Girls Generation and FIRST Chance will use last season’s REBUILT field, giving teams a great opportunity to build on what they’ve already learned or try out new strategies in a familiar setting.

Please contact ORTOP if you have questions about registration, including fees, bringing a second robot or attendance at Girls Gen. We want to reduce barriers to participation and will work with your team to help you attend if cost or team member availability are barriers.

Bordie Through Time

Dates: October 9 – 10

Location: Bellevue, WA

We are excited to announce that the 6th annual Bordie Blast – Bordie Through Time is open for Registration! Join us for an action-packed weekend on October 10-11, 2026 (with setup and optional load-in on the 9th).

Event Details:

- Dates: October 10-11, 2026

- Location: Sammamish High School, Bellevue, WA

- Registration Fee: $300

- Registration: Register Here

- Volunteer Sign-Up: Volunteer Here

Washington Girls Generation

Dates: October 17 – 18

Location: Maple Valley, WA

Bear Metal is excited to announce team registration for the 2026 Washington Girls’ Generation event is now open! The event will take place at Tahoma High School on October 17th and 18th, with optional load-in on the 16th. The cost to register is $300 per team. All information can be found at: https://tahomarobotics.org/2026-wa-girls-generation The link to sign up is: https://forms.gle/9emMHqhDjRZPmLac6. All spectators are welcome and we hope to see you there!

Block Party 2026

Dates: October 24&25, 2026

Location: Mill Creek, WA

Fee: $400 (additional $200 for a second robot if space permits)

Team Registration form

Volunteer Registration form

For questions, contact Steve Kaneb at steve.kaneb@gmail.com

Important Dates

Now: FIRST Washington Registration is Open

9-26 & 27: Storm Surge

10-3: OR Girls Gen

10-4: FIRST Chance

10-10 & 11: Bordie Blast Through Time

10-17 & 18: WA Girls Gen

10-25 & 26: Block Party

FRC BIOCORE Blog: Volume 3

by Adrienne Collins | Aug 11, 2026 | FRC, Newsletter

PNW Social & Potluck

PNW FRC Coaches and Mentors,

You and the mentors on your team are invited to attend the PNW FRC Mentor Social & Potluck on Saturday, August 15, beginning at 1:00 PM at the FIRSTWA Fieldhouse in Kent (22426 72nd Ave S, Kent, WA 98032).

During the build season, it’s easy for teams and mentors to become somewhat siloed, and competitions don’t always provide the best opportunity to make meaningful connections. My hope is that this gathering will offer a relaxed environment for mentors and coaches to connect with others who share a passion for FIRST Robotics.

If you plan to attend, please sign up using this Google form.

For the potluck, please consider bringing an item based on the first letter of your last name:

Appetizer or Snack: A–N
• Dessert: O–Z

Don’t hesitate to attend even if you’re unable to bring something.

Please share this invitation with the mentors on your FRC team. Water and soda will be provided, and attendees are welcome to bring their preferred alcoholic beverages as well. A few large ice coolers will be available. Because alcohol will be present, this event is limited to mentors and coaches who are 21 years of age or older.

There is interest in reviving the mentor roundtables that were last held in 2019. We will take a few minutes during the social to discuss ideas and begin planning for future mentor roundtable events.

If you have any suggestions or questions, feel free to reach out to me.

Regards,

Darren Collins
FRC 2046
Cell: 206-854-0630

Upcoming Grants to Apply For

FIRSTGrants | Find Funding for FIRST Robotics Teams (Not the official firstinspires page, hosted by an FRC team)

FIRST is currently accepting applications for several sponsor-funded grants. The most active right now are:

BAE Systems FRC Grants (application closes Sept. 13, 2026)

Boston Scientific FRC Grants (closes Sept. 30, 2026, location restrictions apply)
Check the FIRST grant portal regularly because new sponsor grants are added throughout the season.

Boeing FIRST Team Grants Boeing continues to fund FIRST teams through the national FIRST grant system. Washington teams have historically been strong candidates because of Boeing’s large regional presence. Applications are managed through FIRST’s grant portal

Department of Defense STEM (DoD STEM) Robotics Grants These grants support FIRST teams, particularly: Rookie teams and Military-connected schools or teams serving military families.
A second-round funding cycle is expected in September, making this one of the best near-term opportunities.

OTHER OPPORTUNITIES

Local Education Foundations

Many school districts have foundations that fund STEM, CTE, robotics, and enrichment activities. Washington has dozens of active education foundations that award grants annually. Examples include Bellevue Schools Foundation, Lake Washington Schools Foundation, Issaquah Schools Foundation, Highline Schools Foundation, Tacoma Community Foundation programs, and many others.

Typical award: $500 to $10,000
Timeline: Many fall application cycles open Aug-Oct.

Community Foundations

County and regional community foundations frequently fund youth STEM programs, especially teams serving underrepresented students. Examples include Greater Tacoma Community Foundation and local county foundations throughout Washington.

Typical award: $1,000 to $25,000+

Be sure to regularly check the official firstinspires site for new grants that pop up! https://www.firstinspires.org/programs/team-grant-opportunities

For more ideas, collateral materials, templates and to view our fundraising teams meetings, go to: https://firstwa.org/fundraising/

For questions on fundraising and grants, contact Lila Cohen lilam@firstwa.org

Important Dates

Now: FIRST Washington Registration is Open

8-15: PNW FRC Mentor Social & Potluck

9-26 & 27: Storm Surge

10-3: OR Girls Gen

10-4: FIRST Chance

10-10 & 11: Bordie Blast Through Time

10-17 & 18: WA Girls Gen

10-25 & 26: Block Party

FRC BIOCORE Blog: Volume 2

by Adrienne Collins | Aug 4, 2026 | FRC, Newsletter

FIRST Washington Registration

The FIRST Washington registration form is now open!!

One thing to note: You can no longer request grant funding on the FIRST Washington registration form. A separate grant form is being created with a target opening of mid-September. To be considered for any funding that FIRST Washington allocates, you will need to fill out that form. If you do not need funding from FIRST Washington, there is no need to fill out the form.

You can register with FIRST Washington here: https://firstwa.org/frc-registration/

Important! FRC Invoicing and payment changes for the 2026/27 season

Moving forward into the 2026/27 season, FIRST is making a change to how PNW teams pay for their registration. FIRST Washington will no longer be collecting the FIRST portion of the payment and forwarding it on to FIRST HQ.

What this means for your team:

Your team will need to secure your $6500 FIRST Registration through your firstinspires dashboard when registration closes November 17

You will be able to apply grants from your firstinspires dashboard directly to your registration

FIRST Washington will send invoices for the local registration portion only $5500

Because we no longer have to wait for FIRST grants to come in, or for the FIRST registration deadline, we will be sending our invoices out the week of November 9th. Invoices will still be due the 2nd Friday in December (December 11) but based on feedback from coaches, we wanted to give schools more time to process and secure their invoice.

We will talk more about this change during our first coaches chat of the season. Watch future blogs for info on our fall coaches chats!

PNW Social & Potluck

PNW FRC Coaches and Mentors,

If you plan to attend, please sign up using this Google form.

For the potluck, please consider bringing an item based on the first letter of your last name:

Appetizer or Snack: A–N
• Dessert: O–Z

Don’t hesitate to attend even if you’re unable to bring something.

There is interest in reviving the mentor roundtables that were last held in 2019. We will take a few minutes during the social to discuss ideas and begin planning for future mentor roundtable events.

If you have any suggestions or questions, feel free to reach out to me.

Regards,

Darren Collins
FRC 2046
Cell: 206-854-0630

Important Dates

8-4: FIRST Washington Registration Opens

8-15: PNW FRC Mentor Social & Potluck

9-26 & 27: Storm Surge

10-3: OR Girls Gen

10-4: FIRST Chance

10-10 & 11: Bordie Blast Through Time

10-17 & 18: WA Girls Gen

10-25 & 26: Block Party

FRC Blog: Important Information

by Adrienne Collins | Jul 10, 2026 | FRC, Newsletter

Important information, please read entire communication

Please note: This communication was posted in the June 11 blog. In an effort to make sure all coaches are aware of the change, we are resending it as an email with some updates:

You will find a link in this email to the first Office Hours session that Fred has set up in August (based on attendance, we will decide if more sessions are needed/helpful)
We have scheduled two different coaches chat sessions for FTC & FRC coaches. Information on these webinars can in the body of the email below
Collateral materials will be posted on the FIRST Washington Website and the link will be sent out in the blog the week of July 20.

Hello FIRST Washington Robotics Teams!

What an incredible FIRST AGE season!

As another chapter closes and we head into summer, FIRST Washington is preparing for the upcoming CANOPY season. We are also finalizing our budget for the next fiscal year starting July 1, 2026, and wanted to share some important updates.

As many of you are experiencing, funding continues to be a major pressure point for programs like FIRST Robotics. Last season, FIRST Washington was able to support our community by granting nearly $1.4 million in discounts and team support funding.

When planning last season’s budget, we were optimistic we could replenish those reserves through foundation grants, renewal of OSPI, individual donors, and increased corporate support. To that end we set a large fundraising goal of over $1.5 million for the year.

Unfortunately, our success in securing replacement funding fell short by around $700,000. We were unable to secure all the grants we needed, and the State Budget did not restore any funding for FIRST Washington this year.

We have adjusted our fundraising strategy moving forward and are continuing to work as hard as we can to fill this funding gap.

At this time though, we are unable to guarantee registration discounts that teams have become accustomed to over the years.

From now until the start of the next season, we are asking your Teams to work in direct partnership with us to ensure the FIRST Washington ecosystem of nearly 1,000 total teams have the resources and support needed for another successful season for all our FLL, FTC, and FRC programs in the Pacific Northwest.

What we need you to do:

Develop a fundraising plan for the summer and fall that includes the payment of full registration fees for the upcoming season
Work in partnership with FIRST WA Development and Volunteer management staff to engage new mentors and volunteers to support your team- both with time and matching funds from their companies

What FIRST Washington will do:

Host fundraising strategy sessions and office hours for coaches, mentors, and business managers in July and August
- Fundraising outside the school ecosystem.

Tuesday, July 28, 7-8 pm. Click here to join

This targets fundraising in your community and could be helpful for both school based and community teams.

Fundraising inside the school ecosystem.

Tuesday, Aug 4, 7-8 pm. Click here to join

This targets fundraising inside the school ecosystem and may be more of a brainstorming session. I would not recommend this session for community based teams.

FRC Office Hours

Aug 13, 12-1pm. Click here to join

Provide clean fundraising collateral for teams to use
- Links to these materials will be posted in the blog the week of 7-20.
Work directly with companies who currently provide volunteers and mentors with matching funds available to set new engagement goals – ultimately increasing the number of volunteers and mentors on each team whose participation hours are matched with cash from their employer
Activate a team support funding campaign, in addition to our standard fundraising goals for operations, with a target goal of $500K to allocate out to teams on an “as needed for sustainability and stability” basis
Every challenge is a turning point. Every turning point is an opportunity.

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity- Albert Einstein

Working together, we can stabilize funding for the FIRST WA ecosystem over the next two to three years- getting us all to a place where the question isn’t “how do we fund this?” but instead “what do we fund next that makes the student experience even better?”

We know this represents a shift, and we are committed to working alongside you through it. Our focus remains the same: ensuring that every team has a path forward and that our community continues to grow and succeed. Thank you for your continued dedication, resilience, and partnership—we will navigate this next season together.

Regards,

Fred

Fred Krug

President

FIRST Washington

Important Dates

7-28: Fundraising Outside the School Ecosystem

8-4: Fundraising inside the School Ecosystem

8-13: FRC Office Hours

8-15: PNW FRC Mentor Social & Potluck

9-26 & 27: Storm Surge

10-3: OR Girls Gen

10-4: FIRST Chance

10-10 & 11: Bordie Blast Through Time

10-17 & 18: WA Girls Gen

10-25 & 26: Block Party

FRC BIOCORE Blog: Volume 1

by Adrienne Collins | Jul 7, 2026 | FRC, Newsletter

PNW Social & Potluck

PNW FRC Coaches and Mentors,

If you plan to attend, please sign up using this Google form.

For the potluck, please consider bringing an item based on the first letter of your last name:

Appetizer or Snack: A–N
Dessert: O–Z

Don’t hesitate to attend even if you’re unable to bring something.

There is interest in reviving the mentor roundtables that were last held in 2019. We will take a few minutes during the social to discuss ideas and begin planning for future mentor roundtable events.

If you have any suggestions or questions, feel free to reach out to me.

Regards,

Darren Collins
FRC 2046
Cell: 206-854-0630

Storm Surge

Dates: September 26 – 27
Location: Vancouver, WA

Click here to register

Oregon Girls Generation and FIRST Chance

Dates:
- Girls Gen October 3
- FIRST Chance October 4
Location: Wilsonville HS, 6800 SW Wilsonville Rd, Willsonville OR

Registration for Girls Gen and FIRST Chance

Please register soon and let us know your team will attend! We need to confirm there are enough teams, and early registration helps volunteers planning both events. Use this link to register.

Girls Generation: This event gives underrepresented team members the chance to drive the robot and/or lead the pit crew, and gain confidence in competition roles – many for the first time. Contact us if your team would like to participate but you don’t have enough girls or non-binary students for a drive team.

- Sat, Oct 3

- Registration fee is $100.

FIRST Chance: Your team’s chance to test, train, and learn! A competition for all team members to gain experience in new competition roles, especially students who are new to FRC.