#bigbadbob

A couple of weeks ago, the robotics team from Alton, New Hampshire, found out they had qualified for the World Championship for U.S. FIRST Robotics. 

The problem is they only had seven days to raise the $10,000 needed to get to St. Louis. The registration fee alone was $5,000, and then there was another $5,000 in travel, hotel and incidentals to make the trip a reality.

Team 319, also known as "Big Bad Bob," raised almost $10,000 and it came from a variety of donors. The local school board in Barnstead gave an offline donation of $5,600, and then more than $4,000 came from donations as little as $10 to as much $200.

But the team headed out to St. Louis. Because of the last minute nature of the trip, they took a charter buss that took nearly 24 hours each way. They left on Tuesday, April 22, and returned back from the high school on Sunday, April 27.

Team 319 traveled about 2,400 miles in six days and traveled through nine states, and they came away finished 49th out 100 teams in their division and battled some of the best robots in the world. Some of the teams they went up against had six figure budgets for their robots and had major corporate sponsors like Boeing.

At the end of the day, the team is already looking forward to making the trip next year, and hopefully they will have a better outcome in St. Louis. And one thing is for sure, without the use of Fundraise.com and creating a fundraiser page and getting the word out on social media, the trip never would have happened.

The team has already started thinking about next year, and they always need to donations. To learn more about their fundraiser, visit: https://www.fundraise.com/first-robotics-team-319/first-robotics-team-319-world-championship-fundraiser?utm_source=created&utm_medium=f&utm_campaign=OCzB

Back in January when the Prospect Mountain High School Robotics Team got word that the challenge from U.S. FIRST would be called "Aerial Assist" they got right to work.

They began building their robot, creating code, fabricating the parts and then they had a finished product. After two District competitions at the University of New Hampshire and in Lewiston, Maine, Team 310, also known as "Big Bad Bob," had totaled 88 points and they ranked 22nd out of the 53 robots that headed to Boston University's Agganis Arena for District Championship.

Over three days, Bob battled and came away with an 8-4 record, and they just missed qualifying for the Quarterfinals of the tournament that surely would have sent them to National Championship in St. Louis, Missouri, taking place April 23-26.

They were in fact the highest remaining seed that wasn't drafted into the quarterfinals, and they did make a brief appearance in the semifinals, but they were up against the number one seed.

It seemed as if the season was over. But on Monday, April 14, Coach Brian Hikel received an email from U.S. FIRST stating that they were a bubble team and that if five teams dropped out of the National Championship, where 400 teams will be competing, that they would be invited.

And then late on Tuesday, April 13, it happened. Hikel got word that the were invited. Only problem, they would have to ship their robot out by Thursday, April 17, and they would need to leave for St. Louis on a bus by Tuesday, 22.

Bob needs your help, and the team needs to raise $10,000 in the next five days to make this dream a reality.

To see what the students have learned check out this video:

To read more about Bob's trip to Boston check out this article: 

http://www.newhampshirelakesandmountains.com/pdf/BAY.2014.04.17.pdf