A soda drought, are you serious?!?

[Martinez]

This is extremely off topic and I don’t mind if the Mods choose to close this threat but first just hear me out: A soda drought, are you serious?!?

$1 is enough money to support a person in Africa for 1 year.
Drink only Water at the Regionals this year and donate it to 1000wells.com
Just $10 is enough to support a lifetime.

Three weeks ago, I was extremely moved by a fellow Non Prof called 1000wells.com, which is doing exactly what it sounds: build 1000 new wells in the most desolate sections of Africa by raising money through small personal contributions. What really got to me, beyond the passion of the speaker, is that they are truly empowering women and children who want these wells so as not needing to walk five hours a day for ultimately unsafe water. In fact I was further surprised to learn that the National Academy of Engineering named “providing access to clean water” as a top 14 challenge of our generation.

I think I finally figured some things out:
This took a lot of soul searching so just trust me. I’ve never really truly been an engineer, though I have the brain of one and a piece of paper that says I am. One of my roles in life is to motivate the next generation of engineers to help solve these massive problems in the world. In fact, I wouldn’t mind killing that Dilbert Stereotype if we had the chance. FIRST has been an extremely powerful focusing force for that energy, so as to bring so many passionate people on board. And I want to help as much and as often as I can.

So here is where I figure FIRST comes in…

Some of you may know about my efforts to create a FIRST Robotics team in the Binghamton Area. You’ll also realize that it’s been a bit… unsuccessful. Listening to this speaker I realized a very important point: I’m $#@% privileged. Really $#@% privileged. The amount of money I have, and the amount of money we use in this organization, is incredibly enormous. And don’t get me wrong, I DO feel it’s well spent, however we are an extremely small minority literally forging a new society. Yet, how can I convince a Company Exec to give $10,000 if I can’t convince people like you and me to give a simple five bucks to any equally note worthy cause.

So here’s what I intend to do…
No soda at the Regionals. God it will be hard to do, but every time I would get a soda instead $2 will be going into my pocket. Further more, I’ll be making buttons. You can find a copy of the forms here: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2096. Unfortunately due to limited time there will likely not be too many. I will be handing out these buttons. The only condition to receive one of these buttons is you must go on a soda drought with me AND get one other person to as well. I’ll also be excepting donations as well. You can find me at the Rochester and Philly.

God Bless and Go FIRST!