TLDR:
Successful Robotics team facing a funding crisis - with tons of opportunities for Nouns support to foster a new generation of STEM students and expand the reach of Nouns to worldwide communities.
Hello!
We are team 2338 Gear it Forward - a distinguished FIRST Robotics team competing in competitions since 2008. This team is a part of the Oswego Robotics umbrella which supports 12 other robotics teams, including FIRST Lego League (FLL) teams that allow kids as young as eight years old to get involved with STEM and robotics. With limited support, from a monetary perspective, from our school district, our team has been relying on sponsors to allow us to compete each year. After 2020 we lost key sponsors due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, only managing to survive through extreme budget cuts and continued support from students’ parents. With our success, the need to grow this program has increased tenfold. Unfortunately, with our current funds on hand, this program is at extreme risk of shutting down or making rapid changes that would put our low-income students at risk of not being able to participate with us.
Since 2008, our team has entered each season with clear, measurable goals in our mind:
- Use STEM for good in our community.
- Enrich the development of the students in our team.
- Help everyone have access to the ideals of FIRST - that STEM is accessible and for everyone
For a midwestern team providing STEM, we are growing in diversity ( close to 30% being female, and over 50% minority). We build and send STEM kits to tier-one elementary schools (low-income) - over 1500 total so far, and 130 more each month. Our most recent program involves creating adaptive toys that students with disabilities can use. We also design and fabricate custom sports equipment called CHUCKs (Community Helping Utility Companion for Kickball). It helps all kids, regardless of their motor skills, to participate in physical education classes.
We have also worked with our congresspeople (Sean Casten, Lauren Underwood, and Bill Foster) to launch US House Resolution 259, which is authorized to help support communities with $1.6 Billion in accessible funds for FY2022 under the Title IV part A of the Every Student Succeeds Act. With the bill, we look to expand the reach of FIRST and the joys of STEM with any interested student.
Our continued interaction with community development has allowed us to win the FIRST Chairman’s award numerous times over the past decade. This is the most prestigious award and automatic qualifier for the World Competition.
On the technical competitive side, our team is a powerful contender. Over anything else, we’re a team of innovators, focused on improving ourselves. Starting as a team that struggled to get into the elimination rounds at regionals, we’ve grown to be considered an Illinois powerhouse, regularly dominating the Midwest regional. We’ve received over 30 awards and recognitions since 2008. We’ve gone to Worlds almost ten times - qualifying every season except 2019 in the past eight years. Over 40,000 unique people attend the World competition itself. And through our social media, we have reached over 50,000 people. With our reach and the program’s continued success, we would be an excellent candidate for a sponsor.
Here is what we could do with funding: ( Assuming 40 eth is given = $50,000). Please note that this proposal is open to ANY amount and can be edited to fit. This is just our “perfect” amount that would let us accomplish a lot.
The link to the breakdown of prices for the budgeting is here.
Examples of Nouns x Our team marketing uses:
Stem Kits → Nouns-related activities that elementary school students can use.
Nouns branding on team merchandise
Nouns name on all products ( Robot name etc.)
Nouns sticker/livery on all 2338 Branding Products
Nouns listed as public Workshop co-sponsor
Our monthly process of producing STEM kits follows as this: we calculate how many supplies we need and order them. After we have the supplies we produce and translate instructions. Once instructions are translated and printed we start assembling our kits. On a monthly basis, we assemble around 130 STEM kits per month. When we have all kits assembled and sorted, we distribute them and post an instructional video on our youtube channel.
Here is an example of a project that we did, this past Halloween.
Here is a link to our social media pages:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTXN-QdYnnoBwhnHWKR7O6w/featured