In March the Riot Crew went to Manchester and took the city by storm.

It started on Wednesday, February 29,2012  as we raced the storm to Manchester. Thursday and Friday saw amazing qualifying rounds by Betty, our faithful ‘bot, who ended up winning the XEROX Creativity Award as her elegant autonomous mode delivered astounding, consistant results. Additionally, our good friend Ralph Newell won the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award, the highest honor possible for an individual to win at the Granite State Regional.

Regional Finals on Saturday saw the team rocket to the top and take home the gold with our alliance partners, FIRST Team 131 – CHAOS and FIRST Team 1831 The Screaming Eagles of Gilford, NH. Hence, all three teams qualified to attend the 2012 Championship event in St. Louis.

Five FIRST Maine Teams attended the 2012 Championships six weeks later. The posse traveled to St. Louis; Team 58 was joined by FIRST FRC Teams 2648 Infinite Loop, and rookie team  3930 S.M.A.R.T., FIRST FLL Teams 4447 The Pickle I Ate This Morning, and 7069 Sunnyside Up. In St. Louis, we were joined by our Granite State Regional Alliance partner FIRST FRC Team 1831 The Screaming Eagles.

We all rocked as hard as we could and at the end of the weekend the results are as follows:

• FIRST FLL Team 4447 The Pickle I Ate This Morning finished 7th in their division
• FIRST FLL Team 7069 Sunnyside Up finished 59th in their division
• FIRST FRC Team 58 The Riot Crew was seeded 7th out of 100 on the Curie field
• FIRST FRC Team 2648 Infinite Loop was seeded 3rd out of 100 on the Archimedes field
• FIRST FRC Team 3930 S.M.A.R.T. was seeded 53rd out of 100 on the Newton field
• FIRST FRC Team 1831 The Screaming Eagles was seeded 39th out of 100 on the Galileo field.

All teams played fair with Gracious Professionalism and had a great time, even when a tornado dropped into town to say hello. We all stayed inside and watched the final awards and elimination matches on the Einstein field.

After all that excitement and sightseeing there was but one last high point to be found in the weekend as we happily, yet tiredly, made our way home on Sunday. Doctor Woodie Flowers was booked on the same flight as we were! Many of the team members got the opportunity to have their picture taken with him and Zoltar, our team coach, got his hat signed.

For more information about the FIRST Championship event head on over to US FIRST or TMCnet news who provided excellent writeups for the event.

The next team meeting will be Monday, May 7th, when we will begin our “corkscrew” retrospective of the year and begin planning for next year.

Just a reminder that we are having a Willows Fundraiser on Monday, March 26th. Willows is generously donating a portion of their proceeds between the hours of 4-9 to the team. Please eat at Willows that night and encourage your friends, co-workers, family and anyone else you can think of to eat there as well.

So far we have raised about $14,000 towards our trip to St. Louis. We have a few fundraisers coming up, the closest one is Saturday the 24th. We will be going around to every local business we have not already talked to, and asking them if they would like to donate to our cause. We will be meeting here tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. to organize our trek around the city. The next fundraiser will next friday at St. Johns Catholic Church on Main St. Students are asked to be there at 4:30 p.m. to setup and start serving. Depending on how many kids show up, we will be out of there around 7:00 p.m. We have 2 car washes at Napa in South Portland one is on April 7th, and the other is April 14th. Just a reminder, ALL OF THESE ARE MANDATORY, if you wish to go to St. Louis, then you need to do some of the fundraising work also.

In the shop we are hard at work designing a new bridge lowering arm. We are also working on improving the war wagon by adding a whiteboard to it. The RSV is being constructed. Work on adding a second camera is also being done to the robot.

Fundraising:

Monday March 26: Willows restaurant in South Portland will donate a portion of their proceeds between the hours of 4-9 for every single person that eats at Willows. Please eat at Willows Monday night and encourage your friends, family, and neighbors to as well. For those of you that don’t know where Willows is, it’s located on: 1422 Broadway, South Portland

Mandatory Student Fundraisers:

Saturday March 24: We will be going out to businesses in the community asking them to sponsor us. This is a mandatory event. Students need to be at the robotics building no later than 9 a.m.

March 30: There is a fund raiser at the Night’s of Columbus Church on St. John’s street near the robotics building. This will be sometime in the late afternoon/evening. Times are still unknown. An update will be sent out as soon as we know what times to be there. This is also mandatory.

April 7 and 14: The team is having a car wash at NAPA in South Portland. All students must attend. More details to follow.

If anyone can’t attend these events please let Jacub know ASAP. Email him at e.jacub@gmail.com

- Gilead

The War Wagon has had a diet and now weighs 70 pounds less.  It is almost ready to be shipped to St. Louis.  We are going with a dual wedge design on the robot to lower the bridge.  The RSV has had a major overhall to improve its usability.

Fundraising Notes:

The Willows Fundraiser is next Monday (26th).  Eat at Willows from 4-9 and a percentage of the profit will go to the team.

******Mandatory Student Fundraisers (Students must attend all events)********* 

Not attending these events will effect you going to Championships, the money/time will need to be made up.

Please let Jacub know if you can not attend these fundraisers. (e.jacub@gmail.com)

This Saturday we will meet at the robotics building at 9 on Saturday.  We will be reaching out to local businesses in groups.  We will be driving around South Portland to all the local businesses.   This is mandatory!

There will be a car wash at NAPA in South Portland on the 7th of April.   Times for the event will come later.

On the 30th of March there will be a fundraiser at Nights of Columbus Church on St. John’s street.  (Near the robotics building). Times for the event will be later in the evening, we will let you know the exact time at the next meeting. Please mark the date.

Jacub and Harel