West Philadelphia High School Team Looks to Repeat at Tour de Sol

    PHILADELPHIA, May 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Supporters of the Electric Vehicle
 Team of West Philadelphia High School's Academy of Automotive and
 Mechanical Engineering (WPHSAAME) will gather on Tuesday afternoon to wish
 the students success in this week's Tour de Sol. The Tour de Sol is the
 nation's oldest and most prestigious competition for alternative fuel
 vehicles, now in its 18th year. The race is being held in Saratoga Springs,
 NY and begins on Wednesday with technical testing of vehicles.
     Last year, the team from West Philadelphia High School won the Tour de
 Sol defeating not only colleges and universities, but production vehicles
 from Toyota and Honda. Their vehicle, the Hybrid Attack, was the greenest
 vehicle in the competition.
     The competition will again be fierce. This year besides the usual array
 of colleges, universities and manufacturers there will be a team from Delhi
 College, the premier engineering school of India. Also in the competition
 will be West's closest competitor, Western Washington University, which
 will be sending two (2) vehicles.
     "At a time when the price of gas is over $3.00 a gallon, building a
 vehicle that gets great mileage and runs on soybean oil is a great
 educational experience," said Simon Hauger, the Team's mentor.
     The students and staff at West have been working very hard to prepare
 for the race. Supporters including AFSCME District Council 33, and others
 from the labor and business communities will be gathering at the West
 Philadelphia High School's Academy of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering
 at 221 South Hanson Street at 3:00 PM on Tuesday, May 9, 2006 to cheer the
 Team on as they get ready to once again take on the challenge of building
 the greenest vehicle.
     The team members are students Calvin Cheesboro, Joe Pak, Tyson
 Drummond, Tysheema Lovett, Kerri Gabe, Nkosi Harmon, Bruce Harmon, Kevin
 McKnight, Victor Webster and Tete Occannsey, along with teachers Simon
 Hauger, Clayton Kinsler and Ron Preiss.
     For more information about the Tour de Sol visit the website of the
 Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (http://nesea.org)
     The WPHSAAME is a program of the School District of Philadelphia and
 the Philadelphia Academies, Inc., a non-profit organization that provides
 services in dozens of public high schools and middle schools. For more
 information about Philadelphia Academies visit their website at
 http://AcademiesInc.org.
     The work of the WPHSAAME is supported by its Board of Governors and
 business partners: AFSCME D. C. 33, AAA Mid-Atlantic, Central City Toyota,
 City of Philadelphia Office of Fleet Management, Community College of
 Philadelphia, Gary Barbera Dodgeland, Haines Street Collex, Meissner
 Chevrolet, Mitchell 1, the Philadelphia Parking Authority, the Philadelphia
 School District, Pep Boys, Sunoco, Inc., Subaru of America and the
 University of Pennsylvania.
 
 

SOURCE AFSCME District Council 33