Help SERT travel to Worlds!

Dear supporters of South Eugene Robotics Team: What a pleasure it is to share this update on SERT’s amazing competition season!

Oregon’s #1 robotics team!

SERT finished its regular season as the #1 robotics team in Oregon and placed 8th in the entire PNW District—a stupendous season that earned us an invitation to compete at the FIRST World Championship in Houston, Texas next week!

We’ve qualified for the Championship. Now we just have to get there.

You won’t be surprised to learn that competing at this level comes with a steep price tag. We estimate that SERT will need to raise $45,000 to cover event registration, travel costs, robot and tool transportation, and other expenses. We’ve made progress thanks to many generous corporate and individual donors, but we have a long way to go.

In truth, it’s a heavy lift for our team, but this trip will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many of our students. Our fundraising efforts will help ensure that every student who wants to travel to the Championship will be able to attend, regardless of ability to pay.

Training the next generation of tech-savvy leaders. If you aren’t familiar with SERT, our robotics team is part of FIRST Robotics, a global organization that offers a progressive series of robotics challenges for K-12 students. We are the only team in the Eugene/Springfield area that builds the complex robots rated for arena-style competition. As a student-led team, adult mentors provide guidance, but our high-school aged students design and build the robot from the ground up themselves, first learning from experienced team members, then teaching younger students themselves.

SERT is more than just robots. Inclusion is deeply important to SERT. Our outreach and volunteer efforts have included mentoring robotics groups in middle schools, and bringing STEM activities to those traditionally underrepresented in STEM such as girls and LGBTQ+ youth. Our team also provides innovative assistive technology for young children with disabilities, an effort for which our team received the prestigious United Way Volunteer of the Year award.

But it’s also about robots. SERT's robot has been a powerhouse! Reliable, durable, and a top scorer. The team has been very happy with how it has performed all season, and it's now tuned-up and ready to take on the world!

We believed in our robot. You believed in us. If you noticed our robot zipping forward, backward and sideways while gobbling up cones and cubes, that’s thanks to SERT’s new swerve drive, which we have because of supporters like you.

We’ve long recognized that in order to compete with the top teams – to BE a top team – we need to invest in components like swerve. Donors like you heard our hopes, took us seriously, and invested in us. Our aim is to be good stewards of your funds and your trust, and we hope this season has shown our commitment to that goal.

We deeply appreciate your support! Please share our GoFundMe link far and wide, especially to those with a passion for encouraging STEM education in our youth. These students have worked incredibly hard—thank you for helping us make this trip a possibility for them!

Note: If you prefer a more traditional donation approach, you can send a check to Central Lane Robotics/SERT, 2545 Alder Street, Eugene, OR 97405. We’ll send you a receipt showing our non-profit tax ID information for your records.