Hi Team’s and Volunteers,
We hope you are all staying well and safe while gearing up for the FTC Freight Frenzy Season.
We are happy to announce that we have completed the FTC Pennsylvania season schedule and it has been posted to our website. Please be aware that we have not yet opened registration however but will within the next few days. We wanted to get this information out to you in advance so you may preliminarily strategize your preferences. Please note that the Eastern Pennsylvania Qualifier location is still TBD however as we are working options for a final location. As such, we will open registration after we get this locked down.
https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2021-2022-season
Please be aware that we have been diligently working to put together this hybrid season. We traditionally have this locked down by now however it has been challenging given the ongoing pandemic situation and resulting loss of a few of our past, wonderful venues due regrettably to their internal restrictions. We all are in challenging times with regards to the reality of public health and safety concerns due to a global pandemic which is not in our control. As such, we have been extremely careful to find, visit or revisit, vet and select venues that can safely and securely accommodate our events given current local school, municipality, county, and state requirements, especially in consideration for accommodating the maximum number of teams allowable. We strive for and insist on being consistent with our FIRST policies and in honoring the requirements of our host sites. Our overriding and most important goals are ensuring the health and wellbeing of our students, mentors, coaches, parents and volunteers. We take this responsibility and obligation seriously and to heart just as we also make diligent background checks and screening for our team-associated adults and volunteers an absolute must. The safety and protection of our youth is paramount to participating in FIRST activities.
We hope our public health and welfare situation will be more “normalized” when we initiate traditional events in 2022, but there are no guarantees. We therefore must plan as if there would not be any changes. As such, we will also be publishing a COVID Policy for our events concurrent with the opening of event registration. Stay tuned!
Practice Field Locations/Accessibility:
We have good news for you today. A couple of our volunteers/teams have made FIRST Tech Challenge Freight Frenzy Practice Fields available for your use to assist in design, build and drive trials for your individual team or in collaboration with other teams.
We have two locations so far.
Central PA – Leesport; Jim Rumbaugh, lead FTA for Pennsylvania FIRST Robotics has a field set up in his well-ventilated, open-air garage.
Location: 254 Ziegler Road, Leesport, PA 19533
Map Coordinates: 40.42513, -76.01936
Please text Jim at (610) 301-4628 to schedule.
Eastern PA – Springfield; Springfield Mall. This is storefront #12 right next to the entrance to Target, Upper Level. This space is courtesy of the Eastern PA Robotics Alliance and is also their site housing all three programs.
Location:
1200 Baltimore Pike, Springfield, PA 19064
Map Coordinates: 39.91540, -75.35007
Please text Joe McCullough at (610) 476-3057 to schedule
If there are any other teams or volunteers that would welcome other teams to practice and collaborate, please let us know and we will communicate your offer. Send a request to ftc@pennfirst.org
Thank you,
Tom Zawislak and Dave Hackett
Pennsylvania FIRST® Robotics
FIRST Tech Challenge® Program Delivery Partner
phone: (302) 383-9925
email: ftc@pennfirst.org
Website: www.FTCPenn.org