Grandville Public Schools Announces Five-Year Partnership with Bradford White

GRANDVILLE, MI – Grandville Public Schools has announced a long-term partnership with Bradford White Corporation, an industry-leading manufacturer of water heaters, boilers and storage tanks, for naming rights to the robotics fabrication lab at the district’s new Robotics Competition Center.

Charitable grant funds from Bradford White Corporation’s signature charitable giving program, Industry Forward®, are targeted to support the new Robotics Fabrication Lab as a naming sponsor and robotics teams and events at the new facility in Grandville, Michigan. This facility, attached to the new Grandville Middle School, will be one of the largest built-for-purpose robotics competition centers in the country. Naming rights sponsors for the facility are being coordinated through the Grandville Academic Team Boosters.

Under the terms of the sponsorship arrangement, Bradford White Corporation will provide $25,000 in annual funding over the five-year agreement.

Workforce Development

“We are excited to partner with such a great organization as Bradford White. We are grateful for their support as we provide an amazing learning environment for our scholars!” said Roger Bearup, Grandville Public Schools’ Superintendent.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Grandville Public Schools and to provide funding that will positively impact the students in Michigan through meaningful workforce development training and education and exposure to industry careers. Their robotics program has a successful history, and we look forward to a great partnership together,” said Rebecca Owens, senior communications manager, Bradford White Corporation. 

“The Grandville Robotics program is celebrating its 25^th year, and this new, multi-year partnership with Bradford White Corporation marks a new milestone for us. Long-term sponsorships like this allow us to invest in equipment and make multi-year commitments that expand competitive robotics opportunities for students in Grandville and students from across the Great Lakes region. I would be remiss not to mention that we still have naming rights opportunities at this unique facility, including naming rights for the main competition arena,” said Doug Hepfer, GATB President. 

Robotics Leader

Grandville Public Schools has been a leader in educational robotics for 25 years. Beginning with one high school robotics team in 1998, the program has now grown to include more than 100 teams. More than 700 students participate on Grandville robotics teams, designing, building, and programming robotics for competitions around the world.

Grandville fields more than 20 Lego League and VEX IQ teams made up of fourth through sixth graders. These students go on to participate in the VEX Robotics Competition at the middle school and high school. The district fields middle school drone teams in the RECF Aerial Drone Competition. 

The Grandville High School RoboDawgs are one of the United States’ largest and most accomplished high school robotics teams. Grandville High School also fields teams that compete in the FIRST Robotics Competition, VEX AI, and Bell Advanced Vertical Robotics. High school teams build autonomous vehicles to compete on land, water, and in the air. The RoboDawgs’ high-altitude balloon program conducts research in near space and works to achieve long distance sustained high altitude balloon flight through neutral buoyancy.