hrmph.

Well. Julien's article seemed like it would produce some $$, but apparently, Osprey is not in the "greater Venice area." Here is what I sent them:

To whomever it may concern,
I am the president of the Pine View School Engineering Club. It is a student-run club that started in 2005. The club's goal this year is to compete several battlebots in competitions around the nation as it has the last three years. Three years ago, the club's first robot, Copperhead I, placed fifth in the nation at the BotsIQ competition. The year after, the team won the outstanding championship award at the same competition. Last year, the third revision of Copperhead placed first in the nation in the BotsWorldwide high school 120 lb division. This year, with the economic downturn, our fundraising efforts are encountering many tight purses. In order for our club to continue doing what we are passionate about [building battlebots], we need funding. I understand you are awarding $3,000 grants to organizations in the greater Venice area. Pine View is in Osprey, so I hope that that is close enough. We have no funding from the school - everything we do is funded by corporate donors and families. We would greatly appreciate a grant such as this so that we can begin construction on this year's bot(s). The club has grown significantly since our highly publicized win last year, so with the dozen additional members, it will be quite difficult to keep everyone occupied if we are only working on one bot, and in order to bulid multiple bots, we need more funding. This grant would be greatly appreciated. If there is a specific application, please send it my way if this club is eligible to receive it.

Thank you,
Dan Curhan
(941)315-4326

And this was their response:

Dan Curhan,

Thank you for your inquiry. Our Foundation limits the grants we award to the communities of Englewood, Laurel, Nokomis, North Port, South Venice and Venice.

Cynthia Wood
Chariperson, Grants Committee
The Foundation at The Venice Golf and Country Club

ewwwww. That was rather blunt. There was no "cool, battlebots!" or "i understand you're a student so i'm gonna be nice to you," just "murfle." yknow?

So... no money from them. It would have been nice though...

If you want AutoCAD so you can try and figure it out, email me, and I'll see if I can put a link up to it. It really helps when you are doing your wheels. Trust me.