In taking her new job as the Gloucester Clean Community Coordinator, Lee Fuerst came across an inoperable robot named Cycler. A gift from Waste Management in the 1990s, Cycler had delighted students with his educational presentation about recycling.

One of the robot’s wheels froze up, its remote control became lost and at some point Cycler quit working altogether. In recent years, the robot was left to just take up space in the Clean Community office. 

County community education director Christi Lewis said she had gotten a couple of quotes for repairing the robot, but felt it was not worth the cost. Fuerst said it was at Lewis’s suggestion that she turned to the Gloucester High School robotics team to see if the students could get Cycler working again. 

Robotics club sponsor Rusty West said Dalton Ward, a senior team member, volunteered to take a look. Ward said the first thing he did was to check all of the wiring, which seemed to be in good shape. The only th...