We’ve started fundraising early for the new season, and have just launched a TDT Kickstarter campaign .  We’re proud to be starting our 6th season as a FIRST Tech Challenge team this year. As a community team, though, we do not receive school or large organizational funds but pay our own way by raising money through a modest team member fee, sponsors, and fund raising. Annual expenses include registration, competition entry fees, robot parts (motors, servos, computers, gears, raw material, etc.), software, travel, and other team-related costs. Coaches and mentors are all volunteers.  Additionally, this season, we plan to build our own 3-D printer , both as an educational project for our students, as well as to be able to produce custom parts for our robot.  All funds are ultimately used to help ‘build’ future scientists, technologists, engineers, mathematicians and business leaders.

Support from our friends, community, or anyone wanting to encourage young people to follow careers in science and technology is deeply appreciated, and goes farther than contributors may realize.  While building a robot and competing with it in the annual game challenge is fun, it’s also immensely instructive. Our students learn:

• Problem-solving, design and prototyping
• Teamwork, communication, and collaboration
• Shop skills, such as drilling with hand drill and drill press, using band, table, and chop saws, and shaping plastic, metal and wood
• Mechanical engineering skills, such as fabricating parts, assembling components, and working with motors, gears, servos, & pneumatics
• Electrical engineering skills, such as wiring, working with circuit boards, and troubleshooting electrical issues
• CAD & CAM skills
• Software programming skills
• Public relation skills, such as public speaking, marketing, branding, and team promotion

Contributions to our KickStarter fund are being made through our nonprofit sponsor, Learning is for Everyone, and are  tax deductible as permitted by law. Contributions of any size are valued and appreciated!  Your support will not only help our present team, but also our future students, as parts, tools, and knowledge are handed-down to the next generation of team members. And you’ll get some cool bling in gratitude for your support – pins, handmade duct tape gear, t-shirts, hoodies, plaques and the TDT VIP treatment!

We hope you’ll visit our page and consider contributing to  Team Duct Tape today, in encouragement and support of the success of our leaders of tomorrow.  Thank you!