Further to my message of April 17 (below) and not to steal Mary Hobart's thunder (Mary may have some more to add), this afternoon we hosted a joint press conference with UTC to announce the grant. Local television and radio both covered the event, which featured Connecticut Lt. Governor Jodi Rell. About 50 Connecticut amateurs attended, so there was a good crowd. Lt. Governor Rell delivered a short speech that demonstrated a good understanding of amateur radio and read a statement from Governor Rowland declaring Amateur Radio Week in Connecticut. This was followed by several demonstration contacts from W1AW for the media, including a lengthy contact by Lt. Governor Rell with a station in Nova Scotia. Connecticut Section Manager Betsey Doane, K1EIC, is confident we'll meet the target of 250 trained, certified operators. If we're successful I believe there is an excellent chance that UTC will provide the funding to take the program national. 73, Dave K1ZZ -----Original Message----- From: Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ [mailto:dsumner@arrl.org] Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2002 10:44 AM To: 'arrl-odv@arrl.org' Subject: [ARRL-ODV:7112] UTC Grant Funds Emergency Communications Training in Connecticut I am pleased to announce the award of a $33,000 grant to the ARRL from United Technologies Corporation (UTC) to fund the expansion of ARRL's Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Course (ARECC) program in support of homeland security and emergency communications in Connecticut. The grant provides funding to review and revise our ARECC curriculum, to select and train 20 ARECC trainers/mentors and to certify 250 Connecticut hams through the Level I course by the end of 2002. Connecticut was selected by UTC for this grant since the international corporate headquarters of UTC are in Connecticut. Based on a successful program in the state, UTC and ARRL intend to create a model for a national ARECC expansion program, and UTC will consider a proposal to fund that national program in 2003. This grant is unique in UTC's pattern of giving, and creates a strong public/private partnership between one of the nation's largest defense contractors and one of the largest public service volunteer organizations. UTC is the parent company of Pratt & Whitney, Otis Elevator, Sikorsky Aircraft, Hamilton Sundstrand, Carrier and UTC Fuel Cells. Please treat this as advance notification for the information of the ARRL Board. Arrangements are being made for an appropriate joint public announcement by the ARRL and UTC. David Sumner, K1ZZ Chief Executive Officer