We wouldn’t be FIRST Team 1816 without the generous support of our many corporate sponsors and contributors. As we look forward to another successful season, The Green Machine thanks our team’s sponsorsfor underwriting our competition, registration, robot-build and travel expenses. Led by founding sponsor Medtronic Inc., we are able to build a competition-worthy robot and fulfill our mission to be the Foundation of FIRST Robotics in Minnesota.
FIRST requires teams to seek out corporate and community sponsors to pay for the many expenses involved with building a robot and traveling to competitions. Many teams, including Team 1816, are not directly supported by their high school or school district. Sponsors play a vital role in a FIRST team by providing funding and encouraging employees to become actively involved with the team as volunteers and mentors. By sponsoring a FIRST team, sponsors are giving high school students a unique opportunity to apply what they are learning in school to the real world. Students are exposed to engineering and technology career paths they might not have otherwise considered. On our own team, more than 95% of students since 2005-06 have been inspired to earn college degrees in the sciences, many different engineering disciplines and computer science.
The sponsors behind Team 1816 expect The Green Machine to also support new rookie teams, whether by mentoring or with materials. It’s a high standard that this year extends to 28 rookie teams in Minnesota. We cannot wait to see them in action at competitions in Duluth and Minneapolis in March. Our sponsors also help us provide travel scholarships to members who could not otherwise afford to travel with our team. In this way, everyone has a chance to compete.
This year, our sponsors also challenged us to increase our fundraising efforts by selling the FIRST e-Watt LED Light Bulbs. This fundraiser got everyone on the team involved, with most of our sales occurring at a one-day event at Jerry’s Hardware, Edina. We are proud to say that we are approaching the point of a complete sell-out! Thank you to all our contributors and sponsors!