Looking for some Help To contact Team in MAR

FIRST General Forum
1

Does anybody know how to get into contact with Team 752, the Chargers in MAR?

Last year Team 2168 partnered with Team 752, the chargers at the Bridgewater-Raritan Event in MAR.

Working with these kids was an awesome time, and me, starting as from Team 640 in Queens, NY in high school, I felt all of the emotion and struggle these kids had as an underfunded/under-resourced team, but they definetly had heart to push through boundaries, glad to see them move on into college.

I left with a contact of one of their sponsors, and had permission to expose an email he sent to me below, after trying to reach out to them a few weeks ago.


Kevin,

Great to hear from you sir!! I am not sure what is going on in the Newark district....I am mentoring several Urban inner city teams this year. We have a few rookie teams that will need A LOT of help!

I am eager and excited to see you guys compete this year and sooo pumped that I heard from you! I will reach out to those guys and get back to you ASAP.

FYI- ALL the seniors graduated from that team last year- after the season I spent EVERY week with those kids! I went back with them took them to various colleges and asked them where they really wanted to go. 
THAT TOURNAMENT SPIRALED INTO A CHAIN REACTION! WINNING THAT EVENT STARTED A CATALYST THAT LED THEM TO CHANGE THEIR
 THOUGHTS AND BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES!

**They didn’t think they can win or do anything, then I had them reregister for SATs and they all took them in MAY- surprisingly they all did better- I was able to get 3 of the students into the NJIT EOP/EOF program and they are enrolled in the program KILLING it right now! THAT IS WHAT THIS IS ABOUT!
**

Thanks for reaching out and I will def be in touch..


Mohamed M Elalem, MBA, PMP

It was amazing to hear there story, learn that they are chasing their dreams in college, and too even witness a small part of it, but:

The problem I am having is this:

  1. Team 752 is not registered for any 2018 event. They have a long history in first at least competing every year since 2002.
  2. They had mentioned all of their kids were seniors, and we were trying to figure out how they could quickly do some outreach to attract younger kids and continue the program.
  3. Not sure if it’s too late to register now, but I had a second contact whom was tied to the school and I can not even get a hold of that contact now, so looking for any help in MAR.
  4. I would love to see this team continue and get registered. They remind me a lot of the team I started on. How can I/We help make this happen?

And honestly, to have a story like that, where kids immediately believe in themselves and go on to push their own limits, is exactly why we as mentors stay in this program.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Kevin

2

I have their mentor’s contact info and will reach out to you this evening to get the two of you in touch.

However, the bad news is that 752 will not be participating this year. When I reached out to them this fall to see how they’re doing this year, their mentor told me that his school administration had decided that the robotics club would not run for the 2017-2018 school year.

3

Evening,

Its wonderful to hear about the success inspired by that one event. It was also quite an amazing event for myself (Im the former 303 build captain, the one in the suit). I am currently attending NJIT in Newark and I would love to help out with local teams. If there is anything I can do to help anyone in the Newark area, please let me know.

4

Thanks. not sure if you have any more insight then that, but hopefully we can work to reverse that decision. But, I don’t know if it’s too late to register now. It might just be??

We are not from MAR, we compete in the NE DISTRICT, so my MAR contacts are very limited, but I can put you in touch with the sponsors contact I have in the Newark area. I believe they do need a lot of help. We will also be supporting them remotely from SLACK, and working out the collaboration now. So maybe we can get a better population of people to support all the Newark teams.

Regards,
Kevin