NASA Sustaining Grant Winner

MegaHurtz Receives $5000 NASA Sustaining Grant.
Planning for and raising the funds to compete in the 2019 FRC season has been a huge challenge. MegaHurtz continues to be a fully self-funded team. This means that we receive no actual funds from the school district and all support comes from our community and generous sponsors. Buchanan is a small rural area and the challenge of raising the $16,000 we need each year has been made more difficult with each passing year. We are very fortunate and happy to announce that we applied for and received a $5000 grant from NASA as part of their Robotics Alliance Project for FRC teams. This grant pays the $5000 entry fee for FIRST and allows for us to compete in two of the District level competitions held around the state.

We wish to sincerely thank the folks at NASA, FRC, all our supporters and our sponsors for making the 2019 season possible for our team.

Information on the grant award:

Information pulled from the NASA Robotics Alliance Project website (https://frc-grants.arc.nasa.gov/rcs/directions.php)
Sustaining Grants: It is recognized that this is again an extraordinarily difficult year for many teams due to the national economic situation. Due to the extreme circumstances, many long-term teams have lost significant corporate sponsorship and are on the brink of ceasing operations. It is our intent to provide short-term assistance to those teams to allow them to continue productive participation in the program while they identify and acquire new long-term sponsorship. Toward that end, NASA will accept applications for "Sustaining Grants" to provide registration awards for qualified veteran teams. Sustaining Grants are intended to help teams on the verge of dissolution, and are not intended funding for participation in second or third competition events. 

To qualify, teams must document that they have lost one or more of the primary financial sponsors that they had during the 2018 season, and explain how this loss of sponsorship affects the potential for survival of the team. The team must also describe their plans for recovery of long-term sponsorship, and how this will be acquired in time to sustain the team beyond the 2019 season. 

The Sustaining Grants are one-year, one-time grants, and may not be offered again in the future.

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