TDT Takes the Cake and Eats it, too, thanks to GrannyBubba’s Bakery!
Many, many thanks to Grannybubba’s Bakery, of Land O’ Lakes, another great local business reaching out to Team Duct Tape with kindness and support. GrannyBubba’s growing reputation as a phenomenal local bakery understandably puts a high price on the cost of the beautiful custom cakes made by chef Christopher Moore. But when he learned more about Team Duct Tape and saw how much we value and return our community support, he went to great lengths to make sure TDT could afford a cake worthy of the celebration we wanted to throw for team members and families, and personally delivered the cake to our door!
GrannyBubba’s terrific Duct Tape cake made the party, too good looking to eat, but looking too good not to eat – so after giving it suitable admiration, we dug in – and weren’t disappointed! It tasted as great as it looked, and made a great kick off for an afternoon of fun, games and conversation.
We celebrated our graduates, too, two of whom are heading off to state colleges – the University of Florida and Florida Institute of
Technology, and one who’s staying closer to home and will be coaching FLL Team TechnoForce among other things. Our grads hope to be joining in some of our activities and outreach efforts when their schedules permit and we’re equally glad to show them off, so people see what FIRST Tech Challenge can help students accomplish.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be gearing up for the new season, too. We’ve got room for four new students, and would especially love to have some girls join Team Duct Tape this season. We’ve got a great line up up of activities and programs through the summer, including:
- coolTECH at MOSI on June 4 ,
- PTC/USERS World Event in June, in Orlando,
- YMCA LEGO Engineering camp, Bob Sierra YMCA in Northdale, the week of August 9 , and
- 2010 LIFE Fest education conference on Sept. 18 in Orlando at Orange County Extension Service
We’re also looking forward to our annual Independence Day Potluck in July, with more food and fun and friendship! Team Duct Tape is ready to roll for the 2010-11 season, heading into our third season with lots of experience and fresh insights, and ready to
see what FIRST has in store for us this year! If you’d like to be part of the fun, please visit “Be Part of Team Duct Tape” to learn more and apply!
Gearing Up for Spring and Summer
We held our first formal post-season meeting today — or perhaps a very early *pre-season* meeting, depending on your perspective. We’ve got quite a line-up to see us through June! Some of our upcoming activities and programs include:
- An FTC Demo at Berean Academy in Lutz this month, where some of our members attend school
- CAD training at McCormick-Stevenson in Clearwater in May
- A personalized tour of Electronic Arts in Orlando, while we’re there providing FTC demonstrations at the PTC/USERS World Event June 7-9
- Plans for hosting an FLL Summer camp
and general all purpose fun and games like a laser tag night at the local Qzar , and a Team Duct Tape 4th of July cook-out and pool party.
We also worked on creating stronger role definitions for team members, looked at a sample team handbook with an eye to creating our own, and got a brief tutorial on using the Windchill collaborative tool to help plan out our work next season.
All in all — and with a terrific peanut butter pie for a snack! — it was a terrific meeting that has us all looking ahead with excitement and anticipation about all the great things coming up this spring and summer.
Team Duct Tape 