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