Fundraising!

Since FIRST Robotics is a relatively expensive program, every team needs to do a lot of fundraising. It takes $5K to register for a single regional competition.  This doesn't include monies to buy parts and materials to build the robot ($4K) nor travel expenses (TBD) to get the team to that competition.  If the team decides to register for additional competitions, it costs $4K more for each one.  The team can spend up to $4K in labor and parts to build a competition robot.  Of course, there's more if spare parts have to be kept in stock and if we build an extra robot to practice with after the freeze date (Bag and Tag Day).

There are many ways to raise funds: applying for grants, bake sales, car washes, pasta dinners, selling candy/candles/popcorn/raffles, going to local businesses for donations, etc.  We've been continuously applying for grants.  Every Thursday, we hold a bake sale after school.  The kids have been reaching out to the businesses in the area.  While we appreciate every dollar that comes our way, we still have a long way to go.  This year we are planning to attend 2 (maybe 3) regional competitions!

The Steel Hawks is now trying out a Kickstarter project.  A parent of some team members set this up.  We're hoping this money will help offset some of the costs described above.

As an added incentive, our head coach has volunteered to be the recipient of a bucket of ice for every $100 raised. (I think he'll be in over his head with ice so he'd better not get sick before Kickoff on January 3rd!  Don't worry - we will be recording this event!)  See his challenge below:

Please Help Spread the Word. Please pass this along, you will be helping an amazing group of students.

Anyone who believes that there is more to an education than Common Core and Standardized Testing, will truly believe in the learning experience FIRST Robotics is giving to our children.

To help my students reach their goal, I will personally do a modified ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE where for every 100.00 raised I will have my students dump ice buckets on me!! That's 80 ice buckets! If they reach their goal by November 30th, 2014, I will make it an even 100 ICE BUCKETS!!!!

The countdown begins now. You know what to do: tell people about it! Let's reach our goal!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1686974648/steel-hawks-first-robotics-team-2601

If you can spare some $, please donate to the team. In any case, please forward this info to others who may be interested.  This project is open until the end of the year.

If you would like to help the team in other ways like:

• mentoring - both technical and non-technical
• food - because kids are always hungry
• running errands to Home Depot, etc. - because we sometimes can't wait for parts to be shipped
• donating services or materials

please contact me or the team at townsendharrisrobotics@gmail.com.

Thank you for your support!