FRC1250 Gator-Bots Henry Ford Academy Trip to Championship

Behind the BumpersThe Gator-Bots are a tiny, high school team from Henry Ford Academy in Dearborn, Michigan. We've had a tough year: we lost our shop space on the Ford campus, our equipment was stored in a storage unit, we started working in a school hallway in December (The Henry Ford Museum graciously built us a 5' x 25' storage closet, but as it is our build season, we still haven't fully moved the rest of our equipment into it.). Usually, we have about 20 students on our team; this year we have 7.

If ever there was a year that we expected to struggle, this is the year. We had 7 students: 5 for the Drive Team, one in the pits, and a 1 student scouting team. These 7 have been unbelievably dedicated. We went to the Belleville Competition with one of the Drive Team hospitalized. The students and robot were amazing; finishing 10th ranked out of 40 teams, making it to the playoffs, and earning The Excellence in Engineering Award!

Two weeks ago we participated in the Livonia Competition. Once again the students shone! We ended ranked 3 out of 40 teams, competed as a District Finalist, and earned The Industrial Design Award sponsored by General Motors. We qualified for States!

At States we finished in 10th place out of 40 on our field and were captains of the 7th Alliance in the playoffs. We finished 76th in Michigan out of 514 teams (top 15%). We are now currently ranked in the top 7% of teams worldwide (Statbotics.io) and have qualified for the FIRST 2024 Championship in Houston!

We are thrilled to have qualified! But....now we have to figure out how to pay for it. We expect this trip (registration, shipping the robot and equipment, team travel, lodgings, and food) to cost $20,000. We are reaching out to our friends and asking for your help.