Today we’d like to introduce you to That ONE Team.
Hi That ONE Team, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
– We are a 501(c)3 organization that seeks to inspire kids through science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM).
– Our team started in 2004 as a FIRST Lego League team.
– In the last 22 years, we have expanded to FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics Competition.
– This year we have 25 teams competing across the levels of FIRST.
– We are community based (no school supporting us).
– Students come from 6 different counties.
– Students from any school district or homeschool are welcome
– For the 2026-2027 season we currently have 181 students on our teams
– Two of our teams attended the World Championship in Houston in May 2026
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Funding!
As a community based team, we do not have a school district providing us with funding. We have to raise money for our materials, our travel, our meeting space, our tools, and our insurance. This adds up quickly!!
We seek to provide our students and their families with a myriad of opportunities to fundraise. Many of our families pay ZERO dollars out of pocket.
We’ve gotten very creative:
– We seek grants
– A euchre tournament
– A silent auction
– Burrito sales
– Business sponsorships
– Sponsor drives (in person cold calling businesses)
– We collected over 30,000 pop cans in 2025 for return
– Our older students teach robotics summer camps
– Parent’s nights out
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Paradise Teams is the parent organization for our teams. Our teams include: That ONE Team (High School), That OTHER Team (Middle School), This OTHER Team (Middle School), The OTHER Team (Middle School), 8 Upper Elementary teams, and 13 Lower Elementary teams.
Our teams are known for being nice. One of the tenets of FIRST is the idea of Gracious Professionalism (c) – competing at a high level, while maintaining positive relationships with other teams, helping where we can, and generally being good humans. Students come to our teams instead of joining other teams because we are inclusive, encouraging, and highly competitive. The culture of our teams makes us a family.
Many parents struggle with child care during the summer months. We look to help with this by offering summer camps each year. Our LEGO and Robotics Summer Camps give students an opportunity to learn about science and robotics, and help parents fill the summer for an affordable price.
Our students also give back to the greater community, We help remove invasive species from a local creek, we adopted a local carpool lot to keep clean, and we help each year with the Grand River Clean up. Additionally, our students have worked with other local organizations such as the library and another local non-profit to help students learn more about science and robotics.
While we enjoy helping people and our environment, a big focus of FIRST is competition. We are happy to say that our teams are good at this, too! In 2026, we won the Muskegon District Event, we won the prestigious Impact Award, and we competed at both the Michigan State and the World Championships.
Clearly, people are choosing our teams; we started in 2004 with 1 team, and now have 25. In 2021 we moved to our current home, That STEAM Space. This space houses our teams, our machine shop, our workshops, our camps, and our practice fields. This is A LOT to try to cram into a single space. Recently, we had the opportunity to lease the storefront next to our Space, and DOUBLE our learning environment.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
www.youtube.com/@Robot-Girl – One of our students explains programming for younger teams
www.firstinspires.org – official FIRST website
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thatoneteam.org
- Instagram: frc_4967
- Facebook: That ONE Team #4967 -FIRST Robotics Competition
- Twitter: @team4967
- Youtube: @ThatONETeam
