Hupy and Abraham,
Thank you for sponsoring The Iron Angels, the first all-girls team competing in the BUILD Moto program! BUILD Moto is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to pairing teams of high school students with bike-building mentors in a collective effort to learn valuable life and interpersonal skills while working on motorcycles. The organization was founded by The Iron Horse Hotel in 2011.
During the 2018 BUILD season, from January to June, nine teams were given the objective to transform a “barn find” motorcycle into an AMA qualified racer! All the teams started the season learning about basic motorcycle and mechanical skills, then tore the bike down, redesigned it, rebuilt it, and raced it in the American Flat Track motorcycle races at Beaver Cycle Club. Each team was also required to fundraise a certain dollar amount during the season. This money is put back into the BUILD program to fund future teams. Through this experience, the students learned about basic STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) concepts, were able to practice general program management to meet timing and financial goals, and learned how social media is an effective tool for business purposes.
This was an amazing challenge for The Iron Angels since 2018 was our inaugural year. However, we are proud to take home 3rd place overall in the competition! We also won awards for Best Social Media, People’s Choice, and Judges’ Choice. The overall results consisted of many different components including: the first design sketch submission, progress videos and board member visits, Milwaukee motorcycle events (including Mama Tried, Flat Out Friday, Iron Horse Bike Night, and Brewtown Rumble) a team visit to MATC’s machine shop, a dyno challenge, budget management and submission, a technical pit challenge, and of course the race.
Our 2018 team consisted of 7 high school girls ranging from 14-18 and 7 adult women mentors from the local motorcycle community. It was so inspiring to see the students’ confidence grow over the course of our build, both in their technical abilities and their personal lives.
We could not have accomplished this without your support and encouragement and would like to sincerely thank you!
Iron Angels BUILD