New Teams forming in Ann Arbor, MI - YOUR HELP NEEDED!

[kmcclary]

Hi!

I'm Keith McClary, the newly elected "FIRST Liaison" for YAAARC, the Ypsilanti / Ann Arbor Area Robotics Club!

We're trying to form teams at the Ann Arbor High Schools. We're a GO at Huron High already for this fall, and WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!

1) I'm trying to locate any and all Ex-FIRST team members now attending U of M Ann Arbor (EMU Ypsilanti, or other local people), that wish to help with mentoring a new team!

2) I REALLY need a few robots to show up for one or more of the following dates for team building demos:

Wed August 22, 7 PM- YAAARC meeting for press, school officials, and local potential sponsors at Corsa Instruments. (see http://yaaarc.org or http://yaaarc.hamjudo.com for maps)

Wed September 19 - Huron High - Operating demo and organizational meeting to organize a Robotics Club to act as the basis for a FIRST team. All day demo in the hallway, with literature, VCR/TV competition tapes playing, and YAAARC and guest team students organizers to talk to. We'd LOVE to have some current (or recently graduated) high school team people come talk to students about their experiences and encourage them to participate!

Date TBD, but probably somewhere during the middle of the week AFTER 9/19:
A BIG showing of multiple robots in a "mock game" in the auditorium for teachers, students, school board, potential sponsors, etc. Date TBD depending on what days teams are available to attend, but we're shooting for mid week. Come have a mock battle with other teams for FREE!

3) I'm desparately looking for leads on sponsors for these new teams! Please contact me if you know of companies (or divisions) in the Ann Arbor MI area that might be interested in sponsoring a new FIRST team! Even a SMALL donation would be greatly appreciated, as Huron High is actually going to include Robotics in their new curriculum, and we need to purchase some Basic Stamp II BOE boards for the class!

Please contact me at acti@provide.net ASAP if you can help connect me with your team captains for a demo of your machine, have contacts for students at UM, know of a potential sponsor, or otherwise can help in ANY of these areas in ANY way!

adTHANKSvance!!!!

- Keith McClary, FIRST Liaison, YAAARC