'Afternoon Zoomies!
Congratulations to 4 lucky kiddos who will be receiving cars from our upcoming workshop! We have 4 unique children in need of 4 unique cars by the end of this school year, now what we need are the resources to do it.
We have raised enough money to make 1-2 cars, and are still looking for donations and sponsors to fill in the rest. We are planning on meeting with all 4 kids in the next couple weeks so we can determine exactly what they need and want out of their cars. To help with this, we've designed a "Car Menu" of affordable, modifiable cars for the differing needs of our kiddos (with fun car names. We also have a video on how to conduct meetings with clients successfully, to help us out and the future members of Project Zoom Zoom.
Speaking of the future, we have a leader chosen to lead Project Zoom Zoom next year-- and she's agreed! We're here to stay folks. Hopefully the volunteers for this workshop will stay on board next year so this project can continue in the years to come.
Unfortunately, there's still the issue of the here and now. We have the clients, we have the volunteers, but we need the money. We are reaching out to various charities and volunteer groups for funding, as well as robotics' parent board for their generous donations to our project, but so far we're a good $400 short at least of being able to afford everything for this workshop. We're considering bringing up asking for a donation from parents at the meetings if they can afford it-- even if they can only pay for a fourth of their vehicle it would help. Please if there's anything you can spare, we would love your help.
This project has taught us that the hardest part about modifying cars for children with disabilities isn't the car modifications, even with their unnecessarily complex wiring and even when everything goes wrong. It's getting people to respond to emails without sounding rude. We don't mean to nag you we just want to build your kid a car! Unfortunately, this seems to be and aspect of adult life that won't be going away any time soon. Thankfully, we've gotten through that part and are ready to build some cars!
So, what's the plan?
Well our workshop ingredients are as follows:
> $800 to pay for cars and modifications (We have ~$400)
>8 volunteers (We have even more!)
A set time and date (We're working on it)
Client Profiles of the children (Will be acquired in meetings)
All cars and car parts purchased and delivered (We'll figure out what we need in the meetings!)
Since the workshop is the culmination of all our work this year, and important for Project Zoom Zoom in future years, we want to have all of this done before the workshop, which is planned for late April (because we really don't want to have to worry about it during APs). That gives us ~4 weeks. We can get our client profiles done in 2 weeks, but we reaaalllllllyyyyyyy need that money by then so we can pay for the cars and parts. So chip in all that you can!
Thank you all!
Alyssa and McKenna <3