Geeks Unite: Raising Money for Robots by Kelly Whalen

I don’t know how I first met Kelly of Centsible Life but she’s one of those people who you feel like you’ve known forever.  Perhaps it is because we have many blogging friends in common, we can always find each other online to ask the other’s opinion, or because she’s just plain wonderful!

Kelly recently shared her excitement about her 13 year old son qualifying for the robotics World Championships but was quickly faced with a daunting task of raising a 4 figure sum to send the Vexmen team to Orlando to compete.  The teacher in me knew what an amazing opportunity this was for the boys and girls who made up the teams and brainstormed about ways to raise much needed funds.

We reached out to our contacts to see if we could connect some tech companies with the amazing opportunity to sponsor and now we’re reaching out to you.

Every kid has a dream.  Help Kelly’s son and fellow teammates go to Orlando to show the world that they are amazing by reading her post below.

And let’s use social media for good.  Kelly has already donated $750 of her personal funds but can help too!  For anyone who does any of the following and leaves a comment, I’ll donate $1 for each thing that is done up to $50:

• Write a post and leave a permalink in your comment

• Tweet this: Donate $1 to middle school @Vex_Men robotics team to compete in Orlando World Championships by RT and commenting here: http://bit.ly/gFnTUf 

• Donate and tell me if you used PayPal or the ChipIn widget below in your comment.

Geeks Unite: Raising Money for Robots by Kelly Whalen


I have 7 days to raise $2,500 to help send 6 robotics teams to the VEX World Championships in Orlando, FL April 14-16th. I’m going to desperately plead for your help in a minute, but first I want to tell you why I’m asking for your hard earned dollars.

How cool is this? Nathan and his team built it!

I am immensely proud of both my husband and my son. We’ve become a robotics family. Some people have baseball, or swimming, or soccer, but my family has robotics. My 9 year old begs to go to build nights, and can not wait until she’s old enough to attend weekly. The younger kids are often found playing with Hexbugs, you know those awesome mini robots kids love? They happen to be made by the same company that the robots they build and compete come from, VEX Robotics. It’s their way of getting robots in the hands of even younger kids.

The VEX program is amazing. Kids from middle school through college age spend a season solving a puzzle. How to build a robot to play this years challenge (every year the challenge is different) while working with one team and against two others. Solutions can range from simple to complex and involves skills ranging from math to project management. The idea is to have a fun game to inspire future engineers. Maybe you’ve heard people like Bill Gates or President Obama talking about STEM skills? That’s what these kids are learning. Every week they are using science, technology, engineering and math skills to build and program these robots to compete.

My husband was a mentor last year, but this year he took on an even more active role and runs the club along with the help of two other dedicated mentors. He spends countless hours volunteering his time to help the growing club accommodate all the interested students. Now host to over 100 middle school girls and boys, he spends sometimes as many as 4 nights a week working with the students, organizing events, and attending competitions with the kids on the weekends.
This year 6 of their teams qualified for the World Championship which was an unexpected and delightful surprise. The problem? With nearly double the students this year, they are short on sponsor dollars. Now the registration fees are due, and without them these kids that worked so hard won’t have the opportunity to attend the World competition.

Here’s where I ask for your help:
Personally it means a lot to me to be able to see the kids my husband has worked with all year, and my own son, to the World Championship. The kids will be competing with kids from New Zealand, China, the UK, many other countries, as well as kids from all over the US. It’s an incredible experience for them.
While we are still actively seeking corporate sponsors (email me at kelly@vexmen.com for more info!) with the quick deadline many companies and corporations can’t turn around the sponsor dollars as quickly as we need.

How you can help the VEXMEN

Before I ask for your money, know that I am putting my money where my heart is. I just signed a new advertiser, and will be donating $750 to the VEXMEN from The Centsible Life. That gets our total down to $1,750!

Donate.
You can donate via paypal with a few clicks. Every dollar we raise helps, so please know no amount is too little. We appreciate every donation.

Sponsor a team!
We have some GREAT opportunities for businesses and individuals to sponsor the teams. Check out my special page for donors and sponsors. Gold Level Sponsors will get tons of benefits from ad space on The Centsible Life and the VEXMEN.com site, to logos on the shirts and banners we will have at the World Championships. Can’t afford the Gold? We have another option with some of the same benefits. Check out the sponsorship page for more details.

Share the robotics love.
If you have a love of geeks, or a desire to help out, and you have a blog, please feel free to copy and paste as much of this blog post as you’d like. Email me for images, an interview or more info.

Spread the love on twitter and Facebook. Follow VEXMEN on Facebook and twitter for updates. We’ll be tweeting using #VEXMEN.

Want to know more about the VEXMEN?
Check out www.vexmen.com for more info on the VEXMEN team including photos, events, and more.

This post was provided, with permission, by Kelly Whalen from The Centsible Life.