Up For the Challenge

We had our first robotics team meeting yesterday, looking forward to the World Festival next month. The kids were raring to go! Not content to rest on their laurels, they want to tackle even more of the mission challenges, and add in a cost/benefit analysis for their research project. A man from our local utility company's education and outreach program visited our team meeting yesterday. He's willing to help the kids with the cost/benefit analysis, and the team will also be doing a presentation at the utility company next week! They are also going to be one of our major sponsors.

So far, we've raised about half of the money that we need to get to the World Festival, with three sponsors of $500 or more, and a bunch of people contributing smaller amounts. It's wonderful to see the kind of support that can come out of your own community for an opportunity like this for the kids. We've also heard from many business owners, friends, and family about their own interests in the fields of engineering and sustainable energy. This opportunity to go to the World Festival is expanding the kids' world in many ways - allowing them to do further community outreach than we ever had planned for the team initially. Also, at the world festival, they will have an additional "Alliance" mission challenge, where they will be paired with several other teams from different places in the country or world. What an incredible opportunity for them to get to know team members from different places! I'm sure you can tell from my overabundant use of exclamation marks that I am very excited for our kids and for the team over these amazing possibilities that have been opening up before us.