Welcome to Sugar Rush VRC Signature Event at the Hershey Lodge in Hershey, PA!

Code of Conduct

The REC Foundation considers the positive, respectful, and ethical conduct of teams to be an essential component of the competition. Participants are expected to behave in a respectful and professional manner, and to operate as student-centered teams with limited adult assistance. This includes all students, teachers, coaches, mentors, parents, and spectators associated with a team.

For more details, please refer to the REC Foundation Code of Conduct and Student-Centered Policy. If you have concerns about compliance with the Code of Conduct, please speak to the Event Partner during the event.

Agenda

Please note all times are projected and are subject to change during the event.

Saturday, January 3rd, 2026

12:00 PM - Check In, Inspection, Practice Fields & Pits Open

1:30 PM - Opening Ceremony & Event Meeting

2:30 PM - Qualification Matches and Skills Open

5:30 PM - Sweets Division Dinner Break (Skills will remain open as available)

6:30PM - Sweets Division Qualification Matches resume

6:30 PM - Treats Division Dinner Break (Skills will remain open as available)

7:30PM - Treats Division Qualification Matches resume

9:30 PM - Qualification Matches End and Skills Close

9:40 PM - Practice Fields & Doors Close

Sunday, January 4th, 2026

8:00 AM - Doors & Practice Fields Open

8:30 AM - Qualification Matches and Skills Open

11:15 AM - Qualification Matches End and Skills Close

11:30 AM - Alliance Selection

12:00 PM - Lunch Break

1:00 PM - Elimination Matches

3:15 PM - Awards

3:45 PM - Doors Close & Shuttle to Hershey's Chocolate World

Volunteer

Our Mission Statement

The Sugar Rush Signature Event is a unique experience, driven by the guiding principle of being “By Students, For Students.” The most impactful events are created by individuals who have walked the same path and truly understand what it takes to make them exceptional. Sugar Rush was originally envisioned by a group of high school students, and this dream has been realized only through the dedication and hard work of VEX Alumni.

Our Volunteer Plan

We will open up general volunteering positions around November. Our goal is to fill as many positions as possible with VEX Robotics Alumni. This helps us drive home our mission statement listed above.

Emergency/Bad Weather Policy

Teams will be notified 24 hours prior to the event if there is a weather concern for the event.

Refund and Payment Policies

If the Event Partner cancels the event: 

No refunds will be made.  

If a Coach/Mentor completes registration for the event then chooses to withdraw or not attend:

Due to the high expense for the event, registration fees are non-refundable. 

The event registration fee must be paid within 2 weeks of registration. Teams that are added to the event from the waitlist are required to pay for the event registration fee within 1 week. Teams registering less than 2 weeks before the registration deadline must pay at the time of registration. Any team that fails to pay for their registration within these guidelines will be moved to the waitlist and the spot will be opened up to other teams.

Date: 3-Jan-2026 - 4-Jan-2026

Travel Info

Please review the hotel website for directions. https://www.hersheylodge.com/contact.php

The closest airport in Harrisburg International Airport https://www.flyhia.com/. It is approximately a 15 min drive to the venue.

Hotel Reservations

In Pennsylvania, students under 18 years of age cannot check into a room by themselves. For rooms reserved exclusively for students, the Hershey Lodge requires a list of all reservations associated with your school or organization. For example, if John Doe (a student) has a reservation under East High School, this reservation must be included on a list with others from East High School.

To facilitate this process, we have provided the adult contacts for each school or organization (as listed in Robot Events) to the Hershey Lodge Reservation team. The lodge will group your reservations so they can pre-key and pre-package them according to the school or organization. They will also ensure that rooms are blocked near each other.

At check-in, only the adult contacts for each school or organization will be allowed to pick up the packets and distribute the keys to their students. If the designated adult contact is not attending the event, you must notify the Hershey Lodge and provide the correct adult contact information.

Regarding payments, if the school or organizational contact is not paying for all the rooms in their block, the adult responsible for payment will need to call Hershey Lodge to finalize payment for the room and tax before the arrival date. This applies to each individual reservation.

Please check back in the fall for our Hotel Room Rates and Room Block Reservations

Behavior 

Please remember that while VEX and RECF rules apply to the competition itself, everyone must always follow federal, state, and local laws, as well as the policies of Hershey Lodge. For more information on Hershey Lodge's policies, visit: https://www.hersheyentertainmentandresorts.com/policies-and-guest-expectations.

Webcast

Please check back around November for our Live Stream Links!

Judging Format

Digital Engineering Notebook Submissions / In Person Team Interviews: Team interviews will be conducted in-person at the event. Engineering notebooks will be submitted digitally for evaluation  via a link found within the "My Account" panel of the team contact on RobotEvents. The notebook submission deadline is Saturday, December 27, 2025 at 11:59 PM EST.  

Event Swag

We will have swag available for Pre-Order in the fall!

Signature Event Early Bird Policy

From the RECF Signature Event Knowledgebase:

All Signature Events will have a specific Early Bird Registration that is independent of all local/regional Early Bird systems:

• Each team starts the season with three (3) opportunities to register during the Signature Event Early-Bird period
  • An opportunity is taken away each time the team registers for a Signature Event, whether during the Signature Event Early-Bird period or Standard period
  • A Signature Event Early-Bird opportunity is not taken away if a team registers for a tournament hosted by their school or organization (where the team’s coach is the Event Partner)
• Signature Event Early Bird Registration will open 16 weeks before the event at 12:00PM EST
  • Note: Modifications to this may be made for events in August and September
• Standard Registration will open 14 weeks before the event at 12:00PM EST
• An Event Partner may register their own teams to their Signature Event during Signature Event Early Bird Registration no matter how many other Signature Events they are already registered for  
  • The Event Partner must be the Primary Contact for the teams they are registering

Team Swapping is not allowed within 4 weeks of the event

Photo Album

After the event, we will post our photo album from Sugar Rush 2026. In the meantime:

Check out the Photo Album from Sugar Rush 2025.

Additional Albums can be found here.