7-16-19 FTC Team Blast
Hello FTC Coaches, Mentors & Supporters:
I have 2 items for you today.
- Grants
- Robothon
1. Grant opportunities
FIRST Washington has a number of competitive grant opportunities for teams and we encourage your team to apply! All of these grants are made possible by generous donors, with emphasis going toward assisting disadvantaged teams in need. With FIRST Washington’s commitment to bringing FIRST programs to more communities and schools, it is our goal to help teams to be self-sustaining within three years. If you need help in building out your team sustainability plan and fundraising training, please let us know. We want to see you be successful in not only programming and building a robot, but building strong business and team collaboration skills!
- FIRST Washington grant: Open Now. Deadlines are: FIRST LEGO League September 19, FIRST Tech Challenge September 19, and FIRST Robotics Competition October 3, 2019. To apply: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/8e944e032ad74f98864853f98fa03a44.
- OSPI, iGrants: Open Now. Deadlines September 19 for FIRST LEGO League and FIRST Tech Challenge Teams and October 10 for FIRST Robotics Competition. This generous grant is a building grant for Washington teams only who must compete in FIRST Washington competitions during the 2019-2020 school year. Teams must be public school-based or sponsored by the school. To complete the grant, please work with your school finance office or CTE to complete this grant and they must log in under the school, not the district for these are building level grants. FIRST LEGO League: form 605, FIRST Tech Challenge: form 606, FIRST Robotics Competition: form 424.
- Boeing Grant: Opening mid-July-August. Teams who have a Boeing employee are eligible to have their employee to apply for a grant through Boeing. This grant is managed by Boeing and it is a very generous grant to help offset FIRST registration fees for teams. FIRST LEGO League & FIRST Junior LEGO League applications will open mid-July. FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics Competition application will open in August. Active Boeing employees are encouraged to join the Boeing FIRST Enterprise inSite group (FIRST @ Boeing – Enterprise). Any and all relevant updates will be communicated through the Boeing FIRSTEnterprise inSite in the future.
- SPEEA: Open Now. Deadline: August 15th. If your team has a SPEEA mentor, encourage them to complete the grant application. If you need assistance, FIRST Washington has developed a grant template.
Other opportunities:
- Microsoft: Teams who have a Microsoft employee involved as a coach/mentor not only will benefit tremendously in building their programming, computer science and engineering skills and soft skills, Microsoft will generously match their hours of volunteering with your team at $25/hour. Many FIRST Washington teams leverage this generous partnership and we encourage you to go find a Microsoft employee and invite them to your team!
2. Robothon
Robothon: We would love to have any FirstWA teams that would like to join us at Robothon 2019. If you are interested please contact Lloyd Moore at Lloyd@CyberData-Robotics.com. Here are the details of the show:
Seattle Robotics Society’s 2019 Robothon Robotics Exhibition
Robothon, sponsored and held by the Seattle Robotics Society is a national event that showcases the capabilities and technological developments in robotics from the amateur and experimental robotics community. At this annual event, people from around the world come together to present new robotic technologies, share ideas, meet fellow robotic enthusiasts, show off their robotic creations, visit various robotics displays and compete in many robotic competitions and activities. There is no charge for admission.
Robothon 2019 will be held Saturday October 5, 2019 from 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM at the Seattle Center Armory in Seattle, WA. For more information, follow this link to visit the website: https://robothon.org/event-robothon/
Adrienne Rime
Event & Logistics Manager
FIRST Washington
p: (253) 656-0700