Dear Texas Cavers, To those of you who voted online in the Samsung ³Solve for Tomorrow² Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) contest, THANK YOU !!
The contest ended at midnight on 12 March 2012. The results for voting from among the twelve finalist schools can be found at: https://pages.samsung.com/us/sft/video/index.jsp Schoharie High School in Schoharie County, New York came out on top in the online voting over second-place Sutter High School in California by 13,527 votes. The results of the top four are: Schoharie High School, NY: 102,023 votes Sutter Middle School, CA: 88,496 votes Lawrence County High School, AL: 13,186 votes Mercer School, WI: 12,087 votes (The other eight school finalists received less than 6000 votes each.) Upon official confirmation by Samsung, this will be a tremendous boost for the town which was devastated by floodwaters from Hurricane Irene storm system as it barreled through the northeast in August 2011. The high school will receive the ³People¹s Choice Award.² valued at about $110,000.00. This includes about $100,000.00 in electronics merchandise and software. (see the above website for the official rules and prizes.) Perhaps more importantly, winning the award is a tremendous morale boost for the community. Again, this is arguably the northeast¹s finest caving area. The NSS and the Northeastern Cave Conservancy own and manage a number of the most significant caves in Schoharie County and in Albany County immediately to the east. Continuing efforts by the NRO cavers, along with a great deal of support from the surrounding communities are helping these folks greatly. Some affected citizens were on the verge of giving up and leaving the area, but the outpouring of support has changed their minds and they have elected to stay and rebuild. Here is how the story played in the leading Capitol Region newspaper yesterday: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Schoharie-apparent-video-contest-win ner-3402728.php Again, THANK YOU from the northeastern cavers.
