Attn. Michigan Teams: $2,000,000 FIRST Pledge Cancelled

[Katie Reynolds]

edit: see this post for updates.

I received the following e-mail this morning:

Teams:

This is an S.O.S. We need your help, and we need it NOW. As you may remember, Governor Granholm pledged $2 million to help start a FIRST Robotics team at each and every high school in Michigan that doesn't currently have one. As promised, the $2 million was put into the state budget, but recently both the Senate and the House of Representatives removed it. We have a very short window of time to convince them to it put back.

Please forward this email to your team and ask everyone involved (students, mentors, teachers) along with the school principals, sponsors and parents to take two minutes TODAY to email the letter below to members of the legislature who sit on the senate and house education committees, as well as the senators and representatives from your district. We want our voice to be heard, and to be heard loudly.

I have made the process as easy as possible. All you have to do is:

1. copy and paste the short letter below into an email
2. copy and paste the long string of emails addresses for the state and house
education committee members onto the "send to" line
3. pull the email address of your state legislators from the list I have provided
and add it to the "send to" list from #2 above. If you don't see your legislators on there, feel free to go to the following websites to look them up:

House of Representatives: http://house.michigan.gov/find_a_rep.asp
Senate: http://senate.michigan.gov/


Be sure to sign (type) your name, and include your address and the name of your school, if applicable. It is important for the legislators to see you are from their district.

I want our state legislators to be INUNDATED with letters so it will be clear to
them, whether Republican or Democrat, they cannot afford to turn their backs on this fabulous program. Phone numbers have been provided as well if you would like to call, in addition to emailing them.

I am counting on you to help make Michigan the strongest FIRST state in the nation. With $2,000,000 dedicated to creating new FIRST teams, we can easily do this.

Best Regards,
Gail Alpert


Send To: [copy and paste this list of the education committee members in the "send to"] kathyangerer@house.mi.gov, richardball@house.mi.gov, SenNCassis@senate.michigan.gov, brendaclack@house.mi.gov, SenIClark-Coleman@senate.michigan.gov, kevinelsenheimer@house.mi.gov, robertgosselin@house.mi.gov, rephildenbrand@house.mi.gov, jackhoogendyk@house.mi.gov , hoon-yunghopgood@house.mi.gov, herbkehrl@house.mi.gov , SenWKuipers@senate.michigan.gov, SenBLeland@senate.michigan.gov, lamarlemmonsiii@house.mi.gov, tommeyer@house.mi.gov , gsalpfirst@gmail.com , fredmiller@house.mi.gov , tompearce@house.mi.gov , lesliemortimer@house.mi.gov, johnproos@house.mi.gov , virgilsmith@house.mi.gov, SenGVanWoerkom@senate.michigan.gov, repbarbvanderveen@house.mi.gov, lorencewenke@house.mi.gov , [add your legislators email addresses here]

Dear Legislators from my District:
I am writing this letter to ask that you please reinstate Sec 99 (C) of the State School Aid Act which was removed by the Senate and the House. The FIRST Robotics program is vital to the growth of the future technological workforce in Michigan.

Currently 25% of our high schools participate in the program. Reinstatement of Sec 99 (C) will encourage students from the other 75% of high schools in Michigan to pursue a career related to engineering, science and technology.

[COPY AND PASTE INTO BODY OF EMAIL-add comments here if you wish or leave as is.]

Best Regards,
[your name]
[your home address]
[your school name, if applicable]