They’re going to Bellingham, Washington.
After The Queens Courier story about two students at Grover Cleveland High School who won a citywide bridge building contest and the school looking to raise money to send the duo to the international contest, Queens Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley helped find a donor who will pay the students’ expenses for the contest.
“We had a great opportunity to support not only two kids that are the best in the area, but also support their future and the school,” Crowley said.
“We were thrilled and also relieved,” said Lloyd Kiefer, who is an earth science teacher at Grover Cleveland and co-moderator of the science research club where the students worked on the projects.
Kiefer will accompany 10th graders Derlis Gutierrez and Nestor Barrera, who took first and second place, respectively, in the contest that pitted 65 entrants from Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island. Gutierrez and Barrera will now compete in the International Bridge Building Contest on April 25, in Bellingham, WA.
“We’ll have an understanding of the level of competition that we’re up against, and it will be excellent exposure for the students and heighten their interest in engineering,” Kiefer said.
The rules for the contest charged that students build bridges out of basswood sticks, and the bridges are judged on their efficiency. Students attempted to make the bridge take as much weight as possible, but at the same time, the bridge had to weigh in as light as possible.
Crowley, who has a background working on issues related to city planning, wanted to help the two students and reached out to Martha Hong, who is the President of Ceragem, a medical equipment company in Queens.
“It was a great project, and I really wanted to sponsor them,” Hong said.
Hong, who is the mother of a high school student herself, will pay the roughly $1,400 in expenses that will allow the students and a school adviser to travel to Bellingham to compete against other winners from throughout the country and even other countries.
“Whether they win or not, I think it will give them a motivation to succeed,” Hong said. “If I have an opportunity to help other children as well, I definitely want to do it. The children are our future.”
