NC Spot Festival

We are displaying all three of our vehicles at the NC Spot Festival in Hampstead this weekend.  Come visit us from 10-6 each day; we are next to the camel rides!  Proceeds from the Spot Festival help support the Topsail schools.

Raffle Time!

It's time for the Topsail Electric Vehicle Annual Raffle!
We have big plans for next year's team, including an all-new conversion and significant updates to our other vehicles, but none of it will be possible without financial support.

We have over $2,100 in total prizes available, including...

Recliner from Hampstead Furniture
iPad Mini.
Ukulele from the Ukulele Academy
Car Detailing and Oil Change at Jeff Gordon Chevrolet
Car Detailing at Stevenson Honda
Oil Change and Car Wash at Wilmington Motor Works
Alignment and Tire Rotation at MS Auto
Massage and Facial from Innis Spa
Fishing Rod from Eastern Outfitters
Video Sunglasses from Surf City Pier
Gift Certificates to numerous restaurants and businesses, including:
Advance Auto, Camino Real, Dunkin Donuts, Englese's, Fuzzy Peach, Highway 55, Jungle Rapids, Long Horn, NY Corner Deli, Pizza Hut and Reel Pizza.

Tickets are $10, or 3 for $25, and may be purchased at the drawing.

The drawing will be held May 28th at 6:00PM in the EV Shop (located behind Topsail High School.

At the Earth Day festival

We are at the Wilmington Earth Day Festival at Hugh MacRae Park until 6pm today.  Come out and visit us.

Ready for the NEAT Rally

Our vehicles are loaded up and on their way to the NEAT Rally in Northampton County, NC, thanks to the transportation graciously donated by Blue Water Motorsports.  We also received generous donations from H.H. Gregg, Food Lion, Harris Teeter and Lowes Foods.

A special thanks to Greg, Roy, and all the folks at Blue Water Motorsports.

 We have installed a new electric heating system in our truck that should keep the windows frost-free this fall.

Brandon extracting the blower motor from a donor truck.

 One final step was to install the J1772 charging port on the car, which works with the charging station donated by Schneider Electric.

The port is cleverly hidden in the vent; you can use a regular household outlet with the plug under the fuel door.

The EVlink charging station, powered on and charging the MR2.

Raffle Time

It's time for the annual spring Fundraiser Raffle.  We have a lot of great things planned for next year, but none of it is possible without your financial support.

You can win one of over $2,000 in prizes:

iPad Mini
Dyson Hand Vac
Side Arm Paddleboard Lessons
Surf City Pier Season Pass
Auto Detailing at Stevenson Acura
Tree Stand
Music Loft Gift Card
Golf and Cart for 4
Beach Bowl for 6 (x2)
4 Rounds at Ten Pin Alley (x5)
Ice House Skating for 4
Shuckers Gift Card
3 Fishing Rods
Max's Pizza
Walgreens Gift Bag
Second Wind Fitness Membership
O'Leary's Car Service
Poplar Grove Gift Basket
...and more!

The drawing will be held May 29th at 5:30PM in the EV Shop.

You can purchase tickets from any EV Student.

10 Time Champions!

We competed in the EV Challenge this weekend (April 12-14), winning First Place Overall for the 10^th consecutive year. The car finished first place overall, and the truck won second place overall.  Also, Steve Garrett was named the new Executive Director of the EV Challenge.

Detailed Results are as follows:

1^st Place Overall, 1991 Toyota MR2

2^nd Place Overall, 2001 Ford Ranger

1^st Place, Modifided Class

1^st Place, Truck Class

1^st Place, School Initiative

1^st Place, Troubleshooting

1^st Place, Jeopardy, Truck Team

2^nd Place, Jeopardy, Car Team

1^st Place, Oral Presentation, Car team

2^nd Place, Oral Presentation, Truck Team

1^st Place, Vehicle Design, Modified Class

2^nd Place, Vehicle Design, Truck Class

1^st Place, Autocross, Truck Class

2^nd Place, Autocross, Modified Class

1^st Place, Range, Modified Class

1^st Place, Range, Truck Class

2^nd Place, Acceleration, Truck Class

3^rd Place, Acceleration, Modified Class

A VERY special thanks to Ron Latronico and Kenny Sessions for towing our vehicles to the event!

That's a BIG trophy!

Raffle ticket sales at Hampstead Community Center

Today, several EV13 Team members sold tickets at the Hampstead Women's Clubs annual Craft Fair in the Hampstead Community Center.  The event was held from 8-1 and there were several hundred attendees throughout the day.  The day was a success with Brady and Ryan hitting their goal of 25 tickets sold!  That makes for four of ten members reaching their sales goal!  We hope to raise $2500 with the raffle so we can purchase a new set of Lithium cells for the MR2.

Spot Festival display

Once again, the Topsail Electric Vehicles were on display at the largest Festival in Hampstead each year, the Spot Festival.  A Spot is a fish that is caught off our local waters, and each year thousands of visitors come to enjoy music, fun and most of all, the delicious Spot dinner.  The event is a local fundraiser for the schools and fire departments, so everyone comes out to support the community.
  We had a good showing as usual and fielded plenty of questions about the vehicles.  The team did an excellent job as always.  The festival is usually our first major display and the students were ready for the task.  We get the same questions year after year, but we have noticed that the general public is becoming more aware of electric and hybrid vehicles. This is a good sign, and it also helps that gas prices are pretty high right now, making more people think about alternative fuel sources.

Spot Festival 2011 display

We braved the rain and crowds at the 2011 Spot Festival in Hampstead, NC on Saturday to display our vehicles.  All 10 members were in attendance to help raise awareness of our program and the feasibility of electric vehicles as a practical means of daily transportation.  The crowd was a bit less than last year because of the rain, but that did not deter the class from reaching out to anyone who had questions.  A great day of camaraderie for the EV12 Team!

Topsail Kiwanis presentation

Our EV Team had an opportunity to present our program and fundraising initiative to the Topsail Island Kiwanis club this morning.  We were the featured guest and a wonderful breakfast was provided.  Sean and Stephen spoke to the group with a prepared speech and then opened the floor for questions.  The Kiwanians were very impressed and had excellent questions that continued when they viewed the Ranger and MR2 outside after the meeting adjourned.  We were able to sell our raffle tickets after the presentation.  With over fifty tickets sold, the meeting was prosperous for our fundraising as well as community awareness of our EV program.

ACE Hardware display and fundraiser

Saturday was a beautiful day for informing the community about our EV program.  We had both the Ranger and the MR2 on display at Hampstead ACE Hardware where we sold raffle tickets and displayed our award winning vehicles.  Thanks for the students who took valuable time out of their schedule to help.  We have an excellent dedicated group this year.  With only 12 students, everyone has to step up and do their share...often.  Many raffle tickets were sold, especially by Todd, our salesman of the day!

Spot Festival 2010 display

The EV 11 team has spent two days displaying the EV's at the 2010 Hampstead Spot Festival.  Thousands of visitors stopped by for fun, festivities and a Spot fish dinner.  We had hundreds of very interested visitors stop by our display for information on our project.  This event is the largest one we have locally, and it draws quite a crowd.  Our push this year was to inform of how we intend to raise funds for a Lithium battery transplant in the MR2.  Hopefully, we can raise enough money to buy a new Lithium battery pack.

A day full of display

Friday was a busy day for the EV class.  The entire Pender County Schools employees came to Topsail High School for the beginning of school Convocation.  Over 900 employees got a chance to see the EV's and ask questions as they made their way into THS for their day of meetings.  Sal was the early bird and did a great job showing the vehicles to anyone who stopped by.

  Later, we showed all three EV's at the football game against Trask.  We positioned the vehicles so that everyone entering the game had to walk by them.  Most people stopped and asked questions and were very positive about our program.

Display at THS Wrestlers car show

School is just around the corner and we took the opportunity to display all three EV's at the Topsail Wrestlers car show.  This was their second show at the Topsail High School campus and we were amongst about 75 other    cars showing off their wheels.

Kiwanis Presentation

From left to right:  Todd, Alexis, Sal, Zack, Josh, Joey, Stephen, Chris

Early Tuesday morning, the EV team made a presentation to the Topsail Island Kiwanis club.  We met at 7:00am at the Smokehouse in Holly Ridge for their weekly meeting.  Breakfast was served and we had a 20 minute presentation with a question and answer session.  There was plenty of interest from the 60 members present as they asked the team about the vehicles and the future of electric transportation.  Thanks to the students who attended, who got up very early on a lazy summer day to help promote the program.