Four years ago, Donald “Skip” Thomas’s son was in 7th grade and one of Skip’s colleague’s invited them to check out a robotics tournament in which the Elm City Robo Squad was competing. The Elm City Robo Squad, with a roster of about 50, including several East Haven students, is based out of Career High School.

“My son was allowed to drive the robot in the off-season and he was hooked,” says Skip. “He wasn’t in high school yet, but if I became a mentor, he could be on the team.”

Skip is a mechanical engineer and his wife of 27 years, Alberta Vitale, is an electrical engineer. They officially became mentors to the team in 2014 and are two of 10 regular mentors with the squad. Skip is a lifelong East Haven resident and 1982 graduate of East Haven High School. He and the squad held a robotics demonstration at the Fall Festival.

“Several students from East Haven who go to Career approached us about joining the team after seeing that,” says Skip. “It’s so fantastic that my family has this common interest, to be together and to succeed, not just on the field, but every day in the accomplishments of our daily tasks. We’re close anyway, but this brings us close together with the common goal of being the best we can be.”

The team competes in the FIRST Robotics Competition and has six weeks to design and build a robot for that year’s competition season. The squad has already won two tournaments along with the Chairman’s Award to be ranked second in New England out of 181 teams. This marked the third straight year that the team won the Chairman’s Award.

“That is the epitome of awards—it’s the award given to a team that other teams should strive to be like,” says Skip. “My wife and I have worked hard the past three years at helping these students achieve their goals.”

The team recently competed in the New England Championships and is competing at the World Championships in St. Louis through April 30. There will be 800 teams in six divisions from countries all over the world competing. Elm City Robo Squad, with 22 team members traveling to St. Louis, will compete in up to 25 matches.

“We’ll have a lot of matches. It’s grueling and so exhausting and the students will work so hard,” says Skip. “This is the third year in a row we’ve gone and we have a good chance of winning.”

A mechanical engineer at Parker Hannifan, as a mentor Skip is in charge of production. He helps the students learn how to manufacture and build the parts that the team designs. During competitions, he is the pit boss, working with the pit crew.

“In between matches, we have to make repairs and improvements,” says Skip. “The robots bang into each other pretty good.”

While designing and building the robot is a big part of the being on the Elm City Robo Squad, the students work on all aspects of running the team, including creating a business plan, working with sponsors, fundraising, and community outreach such as visits to grammar schools and Camp Rising Sun.

With the high costs of running the program, the Elm City Robo Squad depends heavily on fundraising and its sponsors, which include Yale University, UIL Holdings Corporation, Comcast/NBC Universal, United Technologies, Best Buy, Career, and many more. In addition to Shake the Can fundraisers at Stop & Shop and WalMart, the team has a gofundme page and will be participating in the Great Give online fundraising event on May 3 and 4.

“We try to fundraise as much as we can and our sponsors are very important,” says Skip, noting the full list of sponsors and a supply wish list are listed on the squad’s website. “The parents and friends of students are also very supportive—every little bit helps.”

While Skip is impressed by the support the team has received from the community and local businesses, he is even more impressed with the students. During the six weeks leading up to competition season, the team meets five days a week for up to five hours at a time and on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“It’s amazing how much effort they put into it, especially when you think about all the work we put into six weeks,” says Skip. “Mentoring these students is so rewarding, especially when they realize they are able to do things they didn’t think they were able to do.

This isn’t Skip’s first coaching job. He was the head coach for the Big Blues swim team in the ‘80s and ‘90s. He also coached his son from the time he was six through the Momauguin Recreation League and helped with his son’s American Legion baseball team.

Now instead of teaching about swim strokes or batting techniques, Skip shows students how to properly handle tools. He enjoys exposing students to tools they may have never worked with before and seeing them hone their skills to manufacture the robot. He has also seen a number of students discover a passion for engineering and robotics.

“You get to see them with that sense of accomplishment and sense of pride in their work. The best thing is watching them succeed,” says Skip, who is also a member of East Haven’s Zoning Board of Appeals and is assistant registrar to Donna Norman. “Over the past three years, I’ve guided students into a technology profession—they see how interesting and exciting it is. They see how they can apply problem-solving skills and that it’s not just math, science, and numbers, but actual physical things you can put together.

“It is just so amazingly rewarding and I’m looking forward to hiring some of these students as interns over the summer,” adds Skip. “We are like a family.”

For information, visit www.elmcityrobosquad.org.