"BRB AND HUFFMAN TARC TEAM MAKE HEADLINES

IN THE BIRMINGHAM NEWS"

 

   On Saturday April 9th the Huffman Middle School TARC team and their parents, their science teacher Mr. Jeffrey Willis, BRB TARC team mentors Ronald Witherspoon and BRB club member Steward Jones all met at the City of Birmingham's New Georgia Landfill for the Huffman TARC team's final qualification flight. The team flew their rocket a total of seven times and turned in their best qualification time of 49.8 seconds.
   Just one week prior Birmingham News staff writer Ms. Hannah Wolfson, who came out to the Huffman student's school in March to do a feature story on the TARC team, sent a staff reporter to the landfill to cover the TARC teams first qualification attempt. The Birmingham News reporter took pictures and interviewed the students, their parents and BRB members. The TARC team's rocket crashed after their second qualification flight attempt and had to be retired for repairs.
   The pictures that were taken from this launch were turned in to Ms. Wolfson who then combined the interviews with the pictures and wrote a nice feature article about BRB and the Huffman TARC team in the April 13th edition of the Birmingham News. The article was a two page write up with color and black and white pictures that appeared in both the Eastern and Northern section editions of the newspaper. BRB Founder Ron Witherspoon and Huffman TARC team members Theodore Tolvin and Antonio Minnifield appear in the pictures that were taken before, during and after the team's qualification flight attempt.
   Although our Huffman TARC team did not make it in the top 100 to qualify for the TARC national finals this year, their qualifying time of 49.8 seconds was a great team effort and we are proud of their team and commend them and their science teacher Mr. Willis for a job well done. As Huffman is the first Birmingham City School to ever enter this prestigious national rocket competition, they have paved the way and set the pace for other Birmingham inner city schools to follow.
   We the "Birmingham Rocket Boys" and all of our sponsors congratulate the Huffman Middle School TARC team and faculty for an outstanding performance and we look forward to working with your school again next year in hopes of making it to the TARC national finals in Virginia. We were proud and honored that you allowed us to mentor your team and was inspired by your team's motivation, enthusiasm and hard work. Remember to keep "aiming high" and to always pursue your dreams.

Written by: Ron Witherspoon / Founder / Vice President
Birmingham Rocket Boys / NAR Section #665