First State Robotics, Inc. (FSR), in a unique partnership with the literacy organization Success Won’t Wait, Inc., collected over 1,000 lbs. of used books as part of the annual Duel on the Delaware robotics competition in October 2004. “Since our competition fell on October 23 — National Make a Difference Day, we wanted to add an element of community service to the event,” explains FSR President John LaRock. “The used book drive was the perfect vehicle to introduce community service as part of our annual competition.”

The Duel on the Delaware showcases the engineering abilities of approximately 450 high school students from Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia in an annual robotics competition. This year, in addition to building working robots, the 21 teams also collected books for the first annual community service competition. Over 1,000 lbs. of books (almost 2,000 books) were collected by the teams.

“This was a wonderful event for us,” says Success Won’t Wait Vice President Vincenza Carrieri-Russo. Not only did we collect many wonderful books for our programs, it was a great opportunity to introduce even more people to our organization.”

National Make a Difference Day is the as the largest single day of community service in the country. Over 3 million citizens throughout the United States committed to thousands of community service projects like the FSR book drive.

First State Robotics, Inc. (FSR) is a local 501 (c) (3) educational corporation connected with a larger educational non-profit organization called FIRST. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and technology) was founded by inventor Dean Karmen to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. FIRST programs build self confidence, knowledge, and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology, and engineering.

Founded in 2002, Success Won’t Wait, Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit literacy organization based in Wilmington, Delaware. Want to learn more about Success Won’t Wait’s literacy projects, how to donate used books in Delaware, or volunteer your time? Click on the About Us tab to learn more.

Read now, because success won’t wait!