Community Outreach

7 years in FIRST. 1500+ hours. Counting every one.

Our Impact

Spreading the Mission Beyond the Field

Gear Girls has run STEM camps, coached FLL teams, and spoken at community events since our first season. Outreach is built into how we operate, not added on top.

Gear Girl with NASA astronaut at STEM Camp
By the Numbers

Years of Impact

1,500+
Total Hours
41+
Outreach Events
1,900+
People Reached
Activities

What We Do

Girl Scouts Outreach

  • Summer STEM Camps
  • Cityfest parade float
  • Girl Scout Robot Demos
  • Daisy & Brownie Badge Workshops
  • Mini STEM camp hosting
  • GS Birthday Demos
  • Intro to Lego Robotics Class

FLL Coaching & Volunteering

  • Coach 2 Girl Scout FLL teams
  • Hosted FLL programming breakout sessions at kickoff (beginner & intermediate)
  • Mentored Lego Lunatics, Robo Rookies, Robo Scouts, Minecraft Bees
  • Volunteer at Southern IL FLL Qualifier & Regionals
  • Volunteer at Pontiac Scrimmage
  • Mentoring FLL teams since 2022

Community Events

  • Sci-Fest Expo
  • O'Fallon City Council presentation
  • Hinchcliffe STEM Night
  • Moye Reading Night
  • PYC STEM Event
  • IBEW Presentation
  • Girls in STEM Panels

Library Events

  • O'Fallon Library STEM Club
  • SPIKE Prime Demos
  • FTC robot demos
  • Coding CUBELETS
  • Wall bumper robots
Gear Girls presenting to O'Fallon City Council with robots Robot demo at Hinchcliffe Elementary STEM Night

Left: Presenting our robot to the O'Fallon City Council  |  Right: Robot demo at Hinchcliffe Elementary STEM Night

Advisory Council

In 2025-2026 we established a Gear Girls Advisory Council, bringing together local professionals to give feedback on our outreach and robot development. Council members also weighed in on our competition presentation.

FRC Pipeline

Gear Girls members are helping launch VOLT, a Girl Scouts rookie FRC team. It creates a path for girls to go from FLL to FTC to FRC, something we wish had existed when we were starting out.

Girls in STEM Panel

We hosted a Girls in STEM panel with 21 local STEM professionals, covering challenges women face in leadership roles and what's being done to change that.

Gear Girls volunteering at FLL Regional

Want to Mentor Us?

We're always looking for mentors from technical and non-technical backgrounds. Whether you work in engineering, education, marketing, or beyond, your experience can help shape the Gear Girls. Mentor involvement is flexible and can be in-person or virtual.

Get in Touch