[AdamHeard]

973 has a grey area here.

Students are responsible for their total cost, but most fundraise this. Some parents choose to pay it so their student has to spend less time fundraising.

The team has lots of methods to help kids fundraise; raffles, events they can work, pamphlets to help going door to door or mailing, etc... Most kids end up making $10-100/hr through our fundraising methods.

We've never have a student unable to go because of finances, we always make things work.

I believe it's important that free rides don't exist, it's a very valuable lesson. That being said, it doesn't have to be a financial cost (it can be work instead).

The lessons learned through fundraising are just as valuable as the technical ones. Some students are great technically but are terrified of talking to people, and fundraising can really help get some kids out of their shell.

If we were to sort the kids in order of how much they've learned (which is something we'd NEVER do), even the lowest ranking kid would feel like they accomplished something. Just being on our team and traveling to events means a great deal of work has been done.