Outreach
Overview
In outreach, we work with local businesses to acquire donations and sponsorships to help our team improve our equipment and broaden our horizons. We also work with the community to introduce robotics to children.
The Department:
Responsibilities
The outreach department is responsible for:
Connecting with companies and securing sponsorships
Organizing events within the school
Operating the Promobot
Organizing and conceptualizing other fundraising projects
Organizing ways to spread F.I.R.S.T. to our community
The Promobot
The Promobot is one of our proudest outreach endeavors. Developed in 2019 and continually improved upon, this is one of our best methods for spreading the vales of F.I.R.S.T. and S.T.E.M. To raise money, we will sell foam brains during the first half of a (typically) basketball game. While they are purchasing the brains, we take the time to inform them about what our team is and what it does. Then during the halftime, we have a "Brainstorm," where spectators can attempt to throw their brains into the bucket on the robot for a chance to win a 50/50 raffle.
Community
It is important ot us to bring F.I.R.S.T. to our community, especially since we live in an area with lower knowledge overall about robotics. We always attend the freshmen orientation night in order to educate the incomming freshmen about the program, and this year we participated in our town's Halloween and Fall Fest activities! We also hosted a remote kickoff event where anyone interested in the sport was invited to attened.
The Parts Library
The Parts Library is our latest outreach endeavor. It will be brought to meet and function how it sounds. Teams will be able to take any part they require. We started this after we were helped in a similar way by another team. We were short a crucial part and they helped us by lending us one. The Parts Library is our way of paying their kindness forward.