Quote:
Originally posted by Jay5780
I have a few thoughts for those who want to help expand the FIRST family.
I moved to RI in 1998 and ever since then I wondered why there is only one team in the state. The Rhode Warriors in my opinion are one of the best teams in the FIRST family and with winning multiple events and awards you would think that they would get coverage by the local media outlets with more than a story when they win an event. They don't know about all that goes on in FIRST because they only know what they are told and I bet FIRST doesn't send anything to local affiliates.
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Well let me answer your questions one by one?
Why is there only one team in Rhode Island?
Simply put, money. RI was never a rich state, and this year is the worst. Sponsorships are few and far between. Companies like our program, but simply say that they are barley have enough money for themselves.
We have made several attempts to try and spread FIRST in RI.
1. First attempt was in Charro, RI in Kent County, but they couldn't raise the necessary $5,000 for entry fees
2. The second attempt was with Kingston, RI with URI being the main sponsor. But for unknown reasons, never happened.
3. This we tried to combine the 3 schools on the Island, Portsmouth, Middletown, and Newport to make one big team. This is still in progress, and maybe we can have a multi-school team next year.
About media in our state about us
1. We had a short segment on Cox 3 talking about our team and FIRST
2. We have been in the Newport Daily News many times, and the Providence Journal once.
3. We did demos at many events, that showed off the robot
At an interesting note, RI does have a strong FLL league. I think we have about 10 towns/cities that are involved with the FLL. We even had a full size FLL competition last year at NUWC (our sponsor)