Main fundraiser photo

Send Robotics 293/SPIKE to Worlds!

The Robotics Team of Hopewell Valley Central High School is heading for a championship season this spring – but we need your help to get to the finish line.

We are Pets4SPIKE, a New Jersey Nonprofit Corporation and the official booster club of First Robotics Competition (FRC) Team 293 "SPIKE." (Pets4SPIKE stands for "Parents, Experts and Teachers Supporting Students Engaged in Killer Engineering!")

We know we have a terrific robot this year. At the Mid-Atlantic Robotics Regional event Mar. 11-12 in Mt. Olive, NJ, SPIKE was dominant, entering the playoffs as the number-one seed, narrowly missing the Finals, and winning the Quality Award. 

So SPIKE is well on its way to qualifying for this year's FRC World Championships in St. Louis in late April. But we need help to pay for the $5,000 registration, plus the transportation, logistics and other expenses needed for our robot, tools, team and mentors to make the trip.

293’s success is not new. We last competed in the FIRST
World Championships in 2013, when we placed in the
top quarter of all teams. In 2014, we won the Bridgewater-Raritan district competition and the Creativity Award, and we were finalists at the Brunswick Eruption off-season event. In 2015, we were quarter-finalists at both of our district events, won an Industrial Design Award and an Engineering Inspiration Award, and qualified for the FIRST World Championships in St. Louis. Unfortunately, we were unable to attend World Championships in 2015 because of the costs – and we don’t want that to happen again this year!

HVCHS students design, build, program and drive our robots. We have many amazing volunteer mentors and dedicated faculty support teachers, but the team is a student activity, with students at its core. Our students also bring their love of STEM to our community, through appearances at events and their commitment to educate younger students at the middle school and every elementary school in the District.

We ask you to support these great kids as they learn not only engineering, design, manufacturing and robotics, but also teamwork, strategic problem-solving, business skills, and the kind of grace under pressure and helpful spirit that FIRST calls "Gracious Professionalism."

Any funds raised that do not go to sending the team to the Worlds will be devoted to the usual mission of Pets4SPIKE, which is to support Team 293 and STEM education in the Hopewell Valley. 

You can also learn more about Team 293 at the team's student-driven website.  For more information about the global First Robotics Competition, visit https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc.

Thanks for being a friend of SPIKE!

Organizer

Tracy Meyer
Organizer
Pennington, NJ
Pets4Spike
 
Registered nonprofit
Donations are typically 100% tax deductible in the US.

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