Down But Not Out

It was on a Sunday afternoon - the same time we had met as a Solar Car team for months. It was decision time. On the following Tuesday our 21 page application and $1500 entry fee were due. I asked how many would be able to make the race July 14-23 - sadly, only four could commit. After all this time, we decided not to enter the race. It was one of the saddest days of my teaching career. Everyone looked so crestfallen and defeated. We went home.

I had a good night's sleep and woke up the next day with a new fire in my belly. We had come to far to give up now. I actively recruited some more students - now we have nine that have signed on the line. On Tuesday we sent in our application.

We are back in the race!

At Hunter Engineering: Fr. Dusty Moss Joseph Davide Hannah Thornton Tyriq Martin
Br Wayne Bowling, Rodney Vance, Mike Howard (plant manager) Ken Lowery

The very hard work of my students raised the funds for our entry fee. Hannah Thornton, Angel Garcia and Dusty Moss made a lot of contacts and developed sponsor sheets.
Additionally, Hannah professionally put together a power point presentation. Joseph Davide, Tyriq Martin, Dusty Moss and Hannah Thornton presented our project on two occasions - one at Hunter Engineering

and another at the monthly meeting of the Kosciusko Lion's Club.

Hannah Thornton

Joseph Davide

We had a logo contest and  it was won by Ms. Cain's class and we used the logo on our T-shirt. We sold T-shirts, designed and printed by one of our student's mom, Peggy Davide! They are still available for purchase. 

We also had a bake sale.

With all of these efforts we have raised over 2200 dollars. (A list of sponsors will appear in the next Solar Car Challenge blog).

Team of Engineers from Hunter Engineers with our engineers.

Now that we had enough money to start, Hunter Engineering sent out their mechanical engineer, David Dennis, and his two assistants. After helping us with the design and listening carefully to our plans, they decided to order us some steel for the frame and some sheet metal for the skin. They also are looking for recycled parts. It was a great day of collaboration and brainstorming with engineers and future engineers. They will build our suspension to our specification. We are on our way. They promised to come back and help as needed.

Everything was in place accept a place. We looked all around to find a home for our Solar Car Challenge. Hunter needed an address to deliver the steel. We needed a place to start building. Then after a phone conversation and initial query, in walks Jenny Cook into my room. She and Art are letting us use their building across from the Vo-tech. Wow! Thank you, Jenny and Art, for being great supporting of education in Kosciusko.

Here are a few shots of our work on the mock-up of our car at our new home.

Joseph Davide, Tyriq Martin, Ray Ferguson, JB Vazquez and Jonathan Cruz

Stay tuned for our progress.