Donations pour in for West Philly Car Kids
Readers get behind The Little After School Team That Could
Donations pour in for West Philly Car Kids
Ronnie Polaneczky, Daily News Columnist
Over at Philadelphia Academies, Inc., the staff has a happy chore on their hands. They have to send out 80 thank-you notes to donors who've just sent about $5,000 in contributions in support of the West Philadelphia Hybrid EVX Team, whom I wrote about in my column yesterday.
The group of dogged students, teachers and mentors at West Philadelphia High School is in a heated contest with global competitors in the $10 million Progressive Automotive X PRIZE contest to design, build, market and produce an environmentally friendly car that gets 100 mpg.
West Philly made the final cut of 43 competitors, down from an original 111 entrants, besting better-known and funded contenders Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Yeah, that MIT.
The only high-school team in the contest, West Philly has been ranked by the editors of Popular Mechanics in the top ten teams likely to win the whole shebang. But the kids need between $80,000 and $100,000 to stay viable in the race (the team has already raised $300,000).
After my column ran yesterday, the money started pouring in to the Philadelphia Academies, Inc., which is handling donations to West Philly. Not just locals are getting behind The Little Team That Could. The Academies' Ilene Merlino tells me that donors hail from as far away as England, the Virgin Islands, Texas, California and Ontario.
The largest check, for $1,000, came from Indiana; the smallest, for a single dollar, from Sweden.
The response thrills the team's founder and guru, Simon Hauger.
"The energy that's been created is really neat. It's great to get $5,000, and to know that it came from so many smaller donors is just really exciting."
To learn how to support the team, go to go to www.evxteam.org. And if you missed Daily News videopgrapher Michelle Tranquilli's piece on these amazing kids, check it out here.
This is so sweet, Ronnie. No matter what happens, this team has already reached the top. But the money would be nothing to sneeze at either. Well done, well done, all around.— Magistra- Great story and worth following. But one thought...the "MIT bashing" seems a little out of place. Is it possible to praise the amazing accomplishments of some outstanding teenagers without sticking it to someone else? Aren't those the lessons we seek to pass along to our children? Grace, dignity, and class still have a place. Ronnie, let's keep our focus on these amazing kids, not their defeated opponents.
- @montanadelphia What Ronnie wrote is hardly MIT bashing. It's necessary to the context of the story to point out the MIT angle. It's fair to say that this contest is fairly unknown in the mainstream, so the magnitude of this high school's accomplishment isn't clear without mentioning the august institution they beat out. I'm sure MIT and their approximately $10 BILLION endowment can handle it. A true act of grace, dignity and class would be for MIT to donate money to the West Philly school. (Source: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/endowment-091609.html)— PhlFlyGrl
- Usually a story about West Philly involves a murder or some other violent act, so this is definitely a change. By the way, did the car have 26 inch rims?— WhatWouldTDDo
When my phone rings here at the Daily News, nine times out of ten the caller begins the conversation with, “Yeah, so what happened was…”.
Because this is Philly, the caller doesn’t say, “My name is Bob” – or Mary – “and I wonder if I could have a moment of your time?” Philadelphians are too direct for that. They just say, “Yeah, so what happened was…”, and then tumble into a tale they think oughta be shared with a wider audience. I love getting these calls (even the ones where it becomes clear, after 30 seconds, where the caller sowed the seeds of his own misery), because they give me chance to connect with fellow citizens in a way that no other job allows. Well, okay, no other job for which I’m remotely qualified.
That’s why my blog is titled “So What Happened Was…”. To me, it’s the quintessentially Philly way of saying, “Once upon a time.” When I hear it, I know a good story is coming. And I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Ronnie Polaneczky has been an award-winning columnist for The Philadelphia Daily News since 1999, offering a front-steps perspective on every aspect of city life, from the sublime to the stupid. In her past life, she was the editor-in-chief of Atlantic City Magazine, associate editor at Philadelphia Magazine and a fulltime freelancer published in Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Reader's Digest, Men's Health, MarieClaire and others. She lives with her husband, daughter and various pets in the city's Fairmount section, where she dreams of one day singing The National Anthem at an Eagles game. In addition to her column and blog, you can enjoy Ronnie's musings in podcast form here.
Read more from Ronnie Polaneczky at Earth to Philly, the Daily News blog on anything and everything "Green
Reach Ronnie at polaner@phillynews.com.
