[LSevcik]

Yes, you are right BEST does not have national media attention nor have they had their nationals at Epcot. Unlike FIRST, BEST is a total volunteer organization made up of dedicated engineers, professionals, and just regular moms and dads that want to make a difference in young people's lives. BEST does not charge fees or have a national headquarters that does fundraising, assembles kits, hire public relations firms or media people. The BEST volunteers that design the game, do accounting, fundraising, purchase kit of parts, assemble kits, run the competitions, do the media, web page etc do it all as volunteers. Hundreds and hundreds of hours with no pay. Why do they do this? Because they want all students to have access to a robotics competition and not have to fundraise to participate.

You are also correct that BEST has a link to FIRST on its website. It has links to lots of things associated with engineering education programs. Kudos to BEST for promoting robotics education. One would think that FIRST could learn something from BEST's example.