Teams that REALLY need our help

[dlavery]

All –

Earlier this week members of Team 116 delivered some materials to Team 364 in Gulfport, Mississippi, to help them rebuild their shop facility that was wiped out by Hurricane Katrina. While there, we went through the south Mississippi coast and over to New Orleans. The video you may have seen on television and the images in the newspapers do not even begin to convey to enormity and totality of the devastation in this area. It is impossible to comprehend what has happened there without seeing it through your own eyes, even three and a half months after the hurricane. As bad as you may think it is along the Gulf Coast, the reality is much, much worse.

In the midst of all that has happened, there are teams from Louisiana and Mississippi that are absolutely committed to participating in FIRST this upcoming season. These teams have lost facilities and supplies from prior years, and are trying to rebuild their resources. In some cases they have lost their schools, so the teams are reforming in new locations. For some of them, their previous sponsor companies no longer exist and they are struggling to recruit mentors. Yet the desire to get back into the program, and get back to something approaching a "normal" activity, is so strong that they have actually been able to not just get the old teams back together, but to actually build new rookie teams and bring new students to FIRST this year. Their determination and perseverance in the face of incredible hardship is one of the most truly inspirational behaviors that I have ever seen.

We have worked with NASA to provide many of these teams with financial resources sufficient to cover their registration costs and basic expenses. But many of them are short on supplies, materials, spare parts, tools, and many other basic items that are needed to have a successful team. So this is where you come in. Do you have a pile of spare, but usable, parts scavenged from the robots of prior years? Do you have fourteen extra Phillips screwdrivers in your toolkits? Do you have an extra four or five pounds of wire tie wraps? How about extra gears that you thought you were going to use but never did? Did someone on your control team make a mistake and buy six extra multi-meters? All of these items, and many more, would be wonderful items to consider donating to the Gulf Coast teams to help them get back into the competition. We have worked with Katie Wallace at the NASA Stennis Space Center to set up a central collection location. Any items for the teams can be sent to:

Katie Wallace
Building 1100, Rm 322J
Stennis Space Center
SSC, MS 39529

Katie is working with all the teams in the area and passing on donated items to the teams as they come in. Also, any teams attending either the Slidell, LA or Houston, TX Regional Kick-Off events can bring supplies, donations and materials to those events and they will be passed on to the Gulf Coast teams. In addition, please feel free to contact any of the affected teams directly to see what materials they may need the most. In some cases, the biggest need may be for team-to-team mentoring. In that case, the most helpful thing that you can do is to "adopt" one of the affected teams and help remotely mentor them during the build and competition season. Answering questions, solving problems, recommending resources, suggesting design ideas, and providing expert advice will be enormously valuable to some of the new rookie teams, and most appreciated.

On behalf of all the teams affected by Katrina, thank you for your consideration.

-dave


p.s. Example items that have specifically been requested include:
Tools - Dremel tools and/or attachments, multi-meters, soldering irons or guns, wire strippers, crimpers, hand tools, etc.
Parts - crimp on connectors, tie wraps, velcro, plexiglass, nuts, bolts, washers, spare parts for constructing prototype robots (extra motors, control electronics, speed controllers, pneumatics, transmissions, etc.)
Supplies - aluminum plate (thinner gages, 20 - 24), #25 and #35 chain for gearing, pulley and belt sets, sprockets, etc.

p.p.s. Some of the teams that were particularly hard-hit by the effects of Hurricane Katrina, but will still be participating in this year’s program, include:
Team 364 - Gulfport High School Technology, Gulfport MS
Team 462 - Provine High School, Jackson MS
Team 590 - Choctaw Central High School, Choctaw MS
Team 1421 - Picayune High School/Pearl River, Picayune MS
Team 1472 - Scotlandville Magnet High School, Baton Rouge LA
Team 1858 - Salmen High School, Slidell LA **
Team 1859 - Bogalusa High School, Bogalusa LA **
Team 1912 - Northshore High School, Slidell LA **
Team 1913 - Covington High School, Covington LA **
Team 1920 - McMain Magnet School, New Orleans LA **
Team 1927 - Mercy Cross High School, Biloxi MS **

** New rookie teams that have formed with students displaced from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast who are no longer able to attend their former schools.