Paul Markun, who recently received the Compass Award at the Florida FTC State Championship for his support of our community based FIRST youth robotics team for more than seven years, has come into financial difficulties and is in danger of losing his workshop. He’s given so much to us over the years, that we want to do something for him, and we’ve launched a YouCaring Campaign fundraiser to help him keep his doors open.

Paul spent hundreds of hours after work and on weekends showing students the finer aspects of metrology (the science of measurement), elegant engineering design and build practices, and proper tool use, as well as providing invaluable training and experience in the use of large and sophisticated machine tools to which students would otherwise never have had access.

Paul never said no to our team members – not when business was good and he was very busy, and not when business fell off. He never said no when he felt well, and could have been off doing other things, nor when he broke his shoulder and had other health problems and could have used some peace and quiet. Always he was there for our youth, in person, on the phone and by email. He came to events to watch them compete and watched Livestreams when they traveled for competitions.

Throughout all this time, Paul never once asked for help for anything, not even when things got really bad. So we have stepped forward to offer it.  We want to give back to Paul for all his years and hundreds of hours of kindness, support and guidance, and we are asking you to help us help our friend and mentor.

Please visit our YouCaring page to learn more and Pay It Forward For Paul!

Thank you for helping us help a great mentor!