GeekAid

Several days ago I heard about a new event to be held in Grand Rapids called GeekAid. Check out their website. I heard this on the radio, and when I heard the word Geek, of course I had to listen. What I gathered from the radio, is that this is supposed to be an art festival with profits going to scholarships for students going to college to study science and technology. I thought that was very cool! I put it in the back of my mind that it was happening on Saturday August 16.

So, a few days ago I decided to Google GeekAid to find out all the details; time, location, etc. Much to my surprise, the GeekAid website proclaimed it to be a Music and Arts festival with other vendors providing food and drink. It sounded like a big deal and as the rusty gears in my head started to turn, I thought this would be a perfect venue to promote FIRST and FRC Team 904.

On Friday morning I hit the contact page on the GeekAid website and shot them an email explaining who we are and what we do, and why it might be a good idea for us to be there. By early afternoon I had an email back inviting our team to be a part of the fun. WhoooHooo! So, bang, I shot out emails to all of our team in hopes to have some support, and I got back some emails confirming their attendance.

Friday evening and Saturday morning I gathered some business cards, our display board and some pamphlets explaining FIRST. We packed up the car and headed to the park for the kick off at noon.

We were warmly welcomed by the GeekAid crew and given a nice spot in the shade to set up, that soon became a spot in the sun... Nevertheless we had a great time talking about robots to anyone that slowed down as they passed our table. We had several people genuinely interested in helping out through donations. We also had some teachers and parents that just thought it was really cool what FIRST is doing.Aside from our participation, GeekAid was a blast. They had great bands that played all day, and they even had a guy playing guitar in between bands, so there was never a lull in the music. They had art auctions to raise money and had a variety of food and drinks as well.

Anyhow, I think GeekAid should be a permanent date on our calendar. The GeekAid folks plan to do the same thing again next year back at the same park around the middle of August. We're hoping to have a couple robots there next year and have people give them a test drive.