[kitsuneheart]

Hello everyone. My name is Courtney Ruth, and I'm secretary of CRT 306. I'll be updating our situation along with Samantha.

First of all, I want to thank each and every one of you and your teams for your support. It means so much to us, and there aren't words for our graditude.

As of right now, our two captains, Samantha and Emily, have met with our superintendent to discuss what's going to be happening with our team. I don't have te details of that meeting yet, but I do plan on finding out.

We've crunched the numbers, and we've managed to come up with a budget that will at least allow us to attend one regional next year. Right now, we're working on thinking up fundraisers to help reach this goal. If anyone has any ideas for us, please let us know.

We've also arranged a meeting with our School Board, scheduled for May 20th. As far as I know, we're going to present our Chairman's Award, and we've invited a couple of teams down to support us. If the meeting goes in our favour, we'll get to keep our room as well as our number. We're not expecting funding, and we think we can manage without it. Should it go awry, we'll begin looking for a new place, and we'll need a new number. If that happens, we'd appreciate it very much if everyone could help us get the word out that we're still around, just with a different number.

Again, we thank you all for your support. Personally, I'd be devastated to see the team go. I'm only a sophmore right now, but I've been involved with FIRST since 5th grade when I was on a lego team. I don't know what I'd do without it, and I think my team feels the same way I do. I'm truly touched by the effort CIA 291 has put in to keep us around, and along with everyone's support... It's overwhelming, to be honest, and from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

If anyone's ever been in a scenario like this, or doesn't get funding from the school, will you please let us know how you raise enough money to be a part of FIRST? Our superintendent likes the plan that we have so far, but it'd be nice to reinforce the idea that operating outside of the school is possible.

Once again, thank you.

~CRT 306~