On November 11, 2008 the first VEX Robotics Challenge took place on the island of Oahu.  Held at Iolani School, there were 40 participating schools, ranging from local teams to teams from Asia.  By participating in this event, the qualifying teams will take apart in the Pan Pacific VEX Robotics Championship to be held in Honolulu from December 4-6.   Our team volunteered in the VEX Challenge by being crystallizers, team queuers and robot inspectors.   As crystallizers, a couple members from our team helped keep the show going by making sure that the competing teams had a working robot.  Before each match, teams were queued into red and blue alliances on an odd and even playing field.  When queued, the teams signed up for a crystal and then was ready to compete.  After the match was finished, teams returned their crystals and headed back to their assigned pit.  Scott Nishimura (8th Grade) from Moanalua Middle School said that by participating in VEX it will not only give him a good learning experience but other students will learn to build a robot and learn new skills.  Mana Kapen (11th Grade) from Roosevelt High School said that with so many local teams participating, that she’ll get to meet new people of all ages since VEX brings students from elementary to high school to the competition.  After the qualification rounds were completed, our shift was at an end and so we instructed our replacement volunteers on what they needed to do.