To draw attention to Team Mercury and FIRST, 1089 makes it a point to participate in numerous community activities. We have become a staple at many local fairs and programs, making it possible to visually display and promote our team in our community.
- Team 1089 participates annually at Hightstown Harvest, our local community fair, where we demo our robot, sell food to the public, and paint pumpkins with elementary school students. In addition to all these efforts, we distribute flyers and provide information to all community members who attend.
- We created a robot game for our presentations outside of Wal-Mart and ShopRite. This offers children the opportunity to learn about our robot and FIRST while having fun. Parents can collect brochures, advertisements for the regional, and children receive buttons and a prize just for participating.
- The yearly Memorial Day Parade in Hightstown gives our team a chance to meet face-to-face with the public. We typically bring two robots, one for demonstration, and one to drive our team banner while our students talk to bystanders about FIRST, 1089, and hand out buttons to the children in attendance.
- Our summer car wash educates the public about FIRST while helping the team raise necessary funds for competition. We hand out brochures to all the drivers, while wearing our t-shirts and advertising our team.
- In cooperation with our local TGI Friday’s restaurant, Taco Bell, Moe’s, and Bistro Soleil, our team, along with parents, mentors, and supporters all dine together in semi-annual fundraisers. Friday’s generously donates 20% of their checks to Team Mercury. Everyone enjoys a great evening out in celebration of their hard work on a FIRST team.
- On the 4th of July, our team gathers at the East Windsor Township Independence Day Celebration. We show off team paraphernalia; including our banner, robot, and various other educational materials.
- We promote the importance of FIRST by inviting state and federal representatives, mayors, town council members, Board of Education members, district officials, building principals, and sponsors to attend the NJ Regional as our VIPs. 1089 attempts to spread the message of FIRST on a local, state-wide, and national level.
- In 2008, 1089 had a specific group of students whose main priority is contacting all the local newspapers, radio stations, and TV stations. Their goal was to advertise FIRST, Team Mercury, and the NJ Regional event, encouraging the media to attend and promote FIRST events.
- Team Mercury was one of 5 teams chosen to represent FIRST at the 2007 Gadgetoff, an invitation-only inventor’s expo held at The Liberty Science Center. The team demonstrated our robot and shared information about FIRST with some of the top inventors in the world.
- For the releases of WALL-E and Terminator, Team Mercury went to the local movie theater and held a robot demonstration for the community to see as a representation of robots in the real world. Additionally, members showed the comparison between the robots in the movies to real world robots, like the popular toy Ferby. Through this event, we increased the community’s awareness of FIRST.