Who Approached who?

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Wetzel

As for 116, Dave Lavery saw FIRST somewhere and decided that NASA should be involved. So in 1996 he found a school near him to host a team and found money in NASA.

Actually, the start-up event for Team 116 was a segment about Dean Kamen that aired one evening back in 1995 on ABC's 20/20. A trio of students in the neightborhood happened to see it. When Dean talked about FIRST they got interested and wanted to give it a try. Those three (Amy Forestell, Waldon Jue, and Leena Holt) came and talked with Dave Miller (the same Dave Miller that later started up KIPR and is the founder of the BotBall competition - guess where he got the idea? ) and myself, and asked for our support and participation. Demonstrating a massive lack of good judgement, we agreed. I took the idea to NASA, Dave set up the partnership with South Lakes High School, and the rest, as they say, is history.

-dave

[Pierson]

Originally Posted by chocolateluvrlr

my team started because a member heard about FIRST and was interested in it. they talked to the tech ed teacher, who helped to start up the team.

ditto

[BandChick]

Actually, ours is an odd story. My mom had tried to get a team started before I was even a high school student, but she couldn't find an advisor that was interested. So my senior year, when I heard my friend Erik talking about it, things really got started. He, his father (Wayne C.), and his friend went around to all the teachers and finally found an advisor. Our team was started just as a normal club, and we had no idea if anyone would have $5000 for the entrance fee.

Finally, after thousands of company visits and a lot of phone calls, Bristol-Myers Squibb called my house. They were actually returning a call my mother made, letting us know they had secured us the money we needed. And hence, 1089 was born.