FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                        October 29, 2007

CARGILL MAKES DONATION TO BEST COMPETITION,
FOUR TEAMS ADVANCE TO REGIONAL CONTEST 

            Cargill, Inc., presented the Heartland BEST program located at Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva with a $5,000 contribution, marking its sixth consecutive year to sponsor the local robotics competition, which took place on the university’s campus Oct. 13.

            Michelle Schroder, representing Cargill’s operation near Freedom, presented Dr. Tim Maharry, director of Heartland BEST, with the sponsorship check.

            Cargill, an international provider of food, agricultural and risk management products and services, employs 158,000 people in 66 countries, including about 30 employees at its salt production facilities near Freedom.

            The Heartland BEST robotics competition is a free program offered to high school and middle school students. It is a non-profit, volunteer organization whose mission is to inspire students to pursue careers in engineering, science and technology through participation in a sports-like, science- and engineering-based robotics competition at no cost to the students or schools.

            Approximately 225 high school and middle school students comprising 15 teams competed in the 2007 event at Northwestern. Nationwide, more than 500 schools participate in this program. This year’s theme is “2021, A Robot Odyssey.”

            Winning this year’s most prestigious award, the BEST Award, was Shattuck High School. This award goes to the team whose documented efforts, design process and oral presentations best exemplify engineering and scientific endeavors. Placing second in the category was Lawton Academy of Arts and Science High School.

            Winning the first place Game Award was Ponca City High School. This award goes to the team whose robot out-performs the other robots in round-robin competition. Placing second was Lomega High School.

            Also competing were high schools from Burlington, Cheyenne, Fairview, Inola, Kingston, Perry, Pratt, Stillwater Home School and Taloga. Middle schools competing were from Fairview and Perry.

            The four winning teams now advance to compete in the Regional Robotics Championships at the Frontier Trails BEST competition at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.

-NW-

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