Surviving for Year #2??

[Greg Shaw]

I am a lead mentor for FRC Team 3601. What a season! We were lucky to recieve a jc penney rookie grant. Despite having zero engineer mentors we were able to build and program a robot that scored points in every match at our last event. We accomplished this goal with a lot of hard work and alot of help from our mentor team (Lake Orion).

I am in the process of trying to find funding for next year. JC Penney will be moving on to a new set of rookies. We are a rural farming community and we do not have ready access to the numerous sponsors that exist in more populous areas. I have discovered that cold calling is a very inefficient way to get sponsors. Today I sent a email to everyone one of our elected officials (state and federal) asking them to arrange contact with potential sponsors.

My students are hooked on FRC. I truly hope that I did not get their hope up only to be disappointed if I cannot find money for next year. We will work very hard to find the money for year number 2. We have lined up more students and we found an mechanical engineer who wants to help with design and build. Now we just need to find the money. Any advice would be appreciated.