Community Outreach

[Kims Robot]

We tend to do anything and everything we can find in our community. We demo at the local science centers, senior homes, elementary schools, parades, summer fairs, E3 Fairs, RIT's Imagine RIT Festival, etc. Find all of your local events and see if you can get a spot at them. Many offer booths for free for groups like FIRST teams.

In terms of community service, again we go with anything we can do around us. We have packed & delivered Thanksgiving baskets, organized Soup for Superbowl, donated Turkeys at Christmas, walked for the Food Shelters and Animal Shelters, volunteered at a place that sorts medical supplies for 3rd world countries, done town cleanups, etc. We try and pick events that we can do year after year.

Most all of the ones I have mentioned above we do every year, and every year we add some. If you consistantly get it on a team calendar and consistantly get people to go and wear your team uniforms you will get noticed. Our uniform happens to include red camo pants so we stick out like crazy, but everyone knows us as "the robotics team" now, and it stands out.

Another point is to make sure you document everything you do, take photos, log the hours on your website, keep a running list of everything. We call our outreach "Thunderbolts" and have a goal of 1,511 in 10 years. It helps to track our goal and see how far we have gotten, and its a lot of fun to go back to places that recognize us and really appreciate having us help.

Good luck!