FIRST is a very lean organization and we just wanted to highlight that for you. Everyone who is involved in FIRST is a volunteer. Karen and I have been involved as volunteers for a very long time.
What happens, though, when we begin, looking at what the pieces are that really surround FIRST Robotics and what makes it unique, is that it starts in junior kindergarten and goes all the way to grade 12. As you see on the screen, Junior FIRST LEGO League is really from kindergarten up until grade 3. Then FIRST LEGO League picks up and works to grade 8. At that point, students are engaged in another program, called FIRST Robotics. That's where they build the big robot that weighs about 120 pounds. Those are really incredible machines.
But what is so wonderful about it, as you will see in the statistics, is that in 2002 FIRST started with 26 Canadian teams. Two of those were all-girl. Sadly, one of the all-girl teams faded. Our girls' team continued. Now we're looking at 4,300 direct participants, with an annual growth rate of about 30%.
Essentially what we're seeing is that if you pour some water on it, it will continue to grow. We had to begin the junior programs because there was such demand for it.