Dear Friend and Business Owner,

This fundraising campaign is on behalf of the IronMechs 2.0 middle school robotics team (Team # 99157B). The team is coached and mentored by Abacus Robotics (ARC) out of Haymarket, VA. Coaches at ARC have been coaching robotics to elementary, middle school and high school kids since 2015. Teams in prior seasons have won numerous awards at local, regional, states and world competitions.

The IronMechs 2.0 team is a 6-member team. This is their first season participating in VEX Robotics. The team is looking to raise $9000 to enable them to attend the VEX Robotics Worlds Championships in Dallas, TX from April 26 to April 29, 2023.

As a rookie team, the team has worked very hard this season to make it to the Worlds level. Through their hard work and persistence, they advanced to the Virginia State Championship on March 4, 2023 by winning the Excellence Award at a local competition. At the Virginia States Championship, they won the Design Award which qualified the team for the Worlds Championship Competition. In addition to these awards, the team also won the Career Readiness Middle School Online Challenge, which qualified them to compete at the World Championship. Persistent in their efforts, the team was a finalist in the VEX Virtual Skills Online Challenge for their

titled "VR Skills Today, Coding the World Tomorrow".

On behalf of the team, I am writing to request your support through a tax-deductible donation. Your support will go towards competition registration costs, transportation, lodging and meals for 4 days. We are hoping to raise $9000 by April 21st, 2023.

Any donation will help the team reach its goal of attending this prestigious competition. The magnitude of this competition can be viewed in this video from VEX.

Thank you for your thoughtful consideration.

Maria Uriyo, PhD