FIRST Team 1511, Rolling Thunder, is proud to be a SASA Charter Team. We started our advocacy journey in 2014 when we attended the National Advocacy Conference and fell in love. We have attended the conference every year since and have co-organized the past five events. Students and mentors have enjoyed lobbying for STEAM on Capitol Hill and in our own backyard. We have lobbied for many successful bills including the Christa McAuliffe Commemorative Coin Act of 2016, the Every Student Succeeds Act, and the Perkins Act. Additionally, we never pass up an opportunity to teach other teams how to advocate, running presentations at Championships, the Finger Lakes Regional, the Midwest Regional, and the State Advocacy Summit. Our current endeavor is to hold the second annual New York Advocacy Conference along with the NYAC Planning Committee consisting of three New York teams. Beyond our advocacy efforts, we hold a few large community events every year. In the fall, we have our Grateful Red music festival where we have local bands come out and play at our town amphitheater. People can come and rock out as well as learn about FIRST and STEM, it’s fun for the whole family! In late October, we have our annual Halloween-themed offseason, Ra Cha Cha Ruckus where teams from around Rochester and beyond come to test out drive teams and get practice by playing the robot game from the previous year. In February, we have our Week 0 scrimmage known as Rochester Rally. At Rally, teams practice with their freshly built robots and get acclimated with the game for that season.