Most Unlikely Places You've Found FRC People
 

I have a question for you all. What has been the most unlikely place you've found a current or previous FRC student or mentor?

I found another student once at a Cross Country meet because she was wearing a team shirt. I must say, I was surprised. I should start wearing my team shirt around more often.

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I do volunteer work for a museum in southern NJ, and I was at an event one day while my Dad was at said museum doing a social of sorts. Long story short, he ended up talking with the mentor of another team that 1257 went up against at that event.

At a fast food restaurant because I had a 971 shirt on.

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A few years ago, my brother was traveling to a Boy Scouts camp (Northern Tier) in Michigan. At the airport there, he met somebody who apparently knew who I was from CD and told him that I made cool swerve drives.

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Men's clothing store in Manhattan.
Selling me pants and shirts.

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At least where I'm from, Boy Scouts is full of FIRST'ers. One year when I was working camp staff, we had a multi-team demonstration for the kids taking the Robotics Merit Badge. We had robots from 6 different teams there. Also for one year, all 5 of our OA Lodge Officers were on FRC teams.

Official partnership between BSA and FIRST? Doubt itever happening, but one can dream.

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On a plane ride from New York. She was sitting next to me when I pulled out my laptop, and my lock screen was a picture of our bot. She was like "HEY THAT'S FRC....WAIT ARE YOU FRC?" :D It was definitely one of the more exciting 5 hour plane rides I've been on :P.

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On my family vacation...4? 5? years ago, I ran into two FIRSTers while at the Grand Canyon. Found out they belonged to a team from NYC, not to far away from myself. It certainly helps to recognize FIRSTers when wearing robotics shirts.

Well...

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On the train!

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True. If I remember correctly, VEX was involved in the making of the curriculum. I do wish there was something more of an official, long-term partnership. I've had to call in favors from people I knew from Scouts for FRC related things before. The target audience and a lot of the sponsors are the same between the two programs.

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I haven't met any FRC people around unlikely places, but around my college campus I tend to run into a few here and there unexpectedly. Which sometimes surprises me because my university doesn't have that many FIRST alumni, even on the intercollegiate robotics team on campus there are only a few.

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Last June we were on vacation in Turks and Caicos. My daughter had her team backpack sitting by her at the pool. A Girl from team 4472 and her mother stopped by to talk robotics for awhile.

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Van Halen concert in 2009!

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I've met 3 people in the UMD Marching Band that have been in FRC.

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Hanley falls, MN steam tractor show

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I met my girlfriend at a UCSC coffee shop and after talking for a while learned she is a team 100 alumni. That was a pretty sweet coincidence!

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I found a retired mentor in a Five Guys once. He saw that I was wearing my team T-Shirt and asked me about it. I also found a member of another team at a church camp.

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Barcelona, Spain in an AirBnB. He was on one of the really good teams from Mexico and was studying in Spain for the summer.

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At an SAT subject test.

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My entire ACT front row was wearing FRC shirts.

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At an FRC Competition

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Really? Who would've thought FIRSTers would be at one of those? :p

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I've lost count but I'll throw in Scout Camp, JCPenny and the Boston Aquarium.

*slow clap*

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Outside the U.S. in China, Japan and Australia. Maybe Montreal and Netherlands one day soon.;)

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I was meeting my son at the camp where he works this summer. As I was waiting for him, a group of campers returned from a canoe or backpack trip. One was wearing a team shirt - from the FRC team my daughter was on about 8 years ago. I went over to say hi.

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Met a former mentor of my team (from before my time) at the seafood fest put on by the local Rotary.

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We had a booth at a maker faire today and met an organizer for an offseason event we're going to in October. The event is a bit over 2 hours away, so that was kind of a weird coincidence.

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Kinda an odd story. I have been a part of a teamspeak for about 4 years now which I used to go on pretty regularly. Its very global with about 30-40 people in my friend group only like 10 that are actually from North America.

I mentioned I was going to robotics worlds and found out another member from Canada joined a rookie team this year and made worlds. Ended up meeting up shortly which was pretty cool.

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At Disney California Adventure last March. Saw a gentleman wearing a 254 hoodie, ran up to him and introduced myself (I was wearing a Team 4 sweathshirt). Had a nice chat for a few minutes and found out he was a dad of a student. Only meeting a fellow FIRSTer can make a day at Disney better.

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I saw someone at my YMCA wearing her Battlecry 17 shirt. We're both from the same town but it was a nice surprise.

I've been recognized in a Shaws before by a mentor.

I've also seen some FIRSTers in less unlikely places like MIT and WPI for various events, including one instance of someone with a Battlecry 1 shirt while I had my Battlecry 17 shirt on.

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Honestly, if I'm there, is it unlikely that another FRC person would be there?

Probably the greatest dissonance was as a couple of coworkers and I were walking in front of a credit union, and they recognized some people they know through all of them being in the Gulf Coast Chorale. One of them was wearing a 364 (Team Fusion) shirt. Not really unlikely, but unexpected.

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I saw people from a different team at a movie theater once... They were wearing team shirts but I didn't go talk to them because I was with a ton of friends and just wearing my team hat...

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On a UMich bus.
Was talking about Chief Delphi to another friend of mine and his ears perked up.

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At a fundraiser! I was selling programs at a USC game, and I had a guy come up to me. He asked what I was selling the programs for. When I responded it was for my robotics team, he asked what team I was on and where I was from. I told him I was from team 5180 at Blythewood High, and he got all excited. Turns out there was a team at Blythewood before 5180 called 1959, and he was a member. He bought a program because he remembered how awful fundraising was, which was pretty sweet.

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in jail

At Hershey Park, a theme park near me, I was standing in line for Fahrenheit wearing my shirt from the world championships. Some guy kept looking at me and I was wondering why. Later in the line his friend came up to me and told me that the guy liked my shirt.

I also have another story

On our way to St. Louis we stopped at a restaurant. Not sure what restaurant it was but when we pulled up we were delighted to see 3-5 members of another team hanging out in the parking lot. We didn't talk, but it was quite fascinating that both my family and the other team happened to get off of the highway at the same exit and reach the same restaurant at the same time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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In a college class. Apparently a former college mentor from 1747's 2010 team (which I was a student on) happened to be sampling my Digital electronic s class and recognized my 2010 team shirt I was wearing that day. He wasn't involved much during that short bit (fall preseason only) hence why I didn't initially recognize him.

Keep in mind that this was my freshman year of college, that 2010 was my Junior year of high school, and that we were at Purdue's College of Technology (now Polytech) in New Albany, 180 miles from West Lafayette and completely devoid of FIRST.

Over there, I never expected to come across much FRC (minus the few students who were old 2783 buddies of mine), and if I did, not from my other former team and also somebody who was a mentor then, now as a student taking the same class.

Small world, I tell you.

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One day I was riding my bike with my friend on the side of a busy street in front of Advance Auto Parts. This one guy was walking past on the sidewalk and he had a volunteer shirt on. I told him I was on an FRC team and we had a cool "Hey!" moment.

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I was told once that someone spotted a homeless man walking around town in our team shirt. I don't think he was a team member though.

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Huh. I left a team shirt in Port-at-Prince this summer when I went there on a mission trip. I'll likely never meet the person who received it, but it's fun to think there's someone in Haiti right now with a 1619 shirt.

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I saw people wearing Team 1676 shirts at a rest stop on the way to St. Louis a couple years ago. The rest stop was in Indiana (I think). Perhaps not totally unrealistic since a bunch of FRC teams are on the road at the same time, but still fairly unlikely to happen.

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This isn't quite what was asked for, but a college freshman who was on 2791 (the team I mentor in college) and one from 1257 (my high school team) are roommates at RPI by pure coincidence!

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At a shabbat dinner. Heard a guy talking about looking to find a place in NYC to weld furniture for his apartment. I suggested an FRC team, turns out he used to be on a team in high school, and he may be 694's newest mentor.

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While on Bicycle ride across Georgia. (A seven day bicycle ride in Georgia). I unexpectedly met several members of 4026 also participating in Brag at a pizza restaurant. The other odd coincidence was that they were our team's allegiance captain at the PCH district championships.

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In a desolate Trader Joe's in Georgia.

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Not really unexpected but in 2015 1523 played frisbee with some students from 4481 under the St. Louis arch (which was really awesome).

I've also got a good friend on Team 79 in Tampa, and we have met up before. We actually talked about the thought of "what if we see a guy wearing a 118 shirt!"

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About three miles down trail from mount washington, i met a mentor for a georgia team. Blanking on their name

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While actually a very "likely" place, I am often happy to see all of the familiar FRC people at Maker Faire Detroit.

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At video game tournaments, at an MIT tour, and even behind the counter of a Chipotle! Also not FRC, but I met someone from FTC while taking a summer college class.

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I found someone that worked for FIRST at Burger King in the airport, a few days after Worlds.

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I met another FIRSTer from Michigan when I was in line for the shuttle bus at Kennedy Space Center.

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At an interview!

FIRST is a considerable portion of my resume so it was no secret I was involved. Turns out the person who is the peer lead to the department I support had been at a competition I was volunteering at and we had engaged in small talk. Not sure if FIRST had anything to do with it but I got the job, so it all worked out in the end :)

Another example isn't exactly meeting someone in FIRST but I was at a multi-day music fest and got to talking to someone about FIRST and now I am working with him to possibly start a team at the school he teaches at.

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I work at The Hulk at Islands of Adventure, I see an FRC Person every so often.

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Not unlike many on here, I have run into quite a few at Boy Scout camp.

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I forgot this story when I first posted but I just remembered it. A few weeks before Champs last year I found I member of 5016 I knew at a random pizza place in his town(a town that probably has 20 pizza places) . Until that day I had never gone there and was only there because a few of my gymnastics friends live in the town. Definitely a surprise seeing someone I knew there.

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An old one: On the way to a competition (I don't remember which one), we stopped at a rest stop with many restraints in it. We ran into a lot of members from 1501 there.

Yesterday: I was wearing a 234 shirt and went to my orthodontist appointment. As I was leaving, a lady told me "good luck this year in robotics".

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I can think of two incidents that really apply:

1. At an interview. I have my volunteer stuff listed on my resume, and it turns out the manager had a son on one of the local area teams. Gave us a chance to talk FIRST for a bit, and I did end up getting the job :)

2. Airport TSA officer. I was going through security with that darned LRI vest, and got pulled aside... turns out I had, at some point that weekend, stuck a potentiometer in one of the pockets. And of course, having a "switch" as the first lady called it, along with all the other stuff I keep in there, was suspicious. after about 15 minutes (I had the distinct impression someone in a backroom somewhere was running a background check on me), she introduced me to one of her "friends" to talk to - he must have been 7 feet tall and was built like a tank. So I started explaining everything all over again, and he interrupted me with "Oh, you're with FIRST? we can get this taken care of". I got to go on my way pretty quickly after that!

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The most unlikely encounters I've had have all revolved around people recognizing me and coming up and talking to me, not necessarily at any one specific place. It always throws me off because a lot of times I've never met them before, they just recognize me as "the tall FRC ref with the beard."

This is what happens when you volunteer in a very visible position 10+ times a year in Michigan...

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I've met several at Boy Scout camps.

Recently my wife and I met some mentors from Michigan with their wives at Disney World. It seems that I'm not the only mentor who needs to bribe their wives with vacations before they sign up to mentor FRC for another year...

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The oregon zoo

My sister was wearing a skunkworks tee shirt, and the other guy was from Phred

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Dunno if this is what you're looking for, but I ran into one of my team's mentors while finding a place to sit at a Bernie Sanders rally. Mostly unlikely because I thought he was a conservative. :P

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Two cool ones here:

1- A TSA agent that was checking our team at the Philly airport on the way to St. Louis in 2013. He was on a now retired FIRST team in Philly as a kid. He recognized our team logo and we talked for as long as you possibly can talk while going through security.

2- Ran into a MOE mentor while touring the Ancient Roman Baths in Bath, England in the summer of 2008.

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I've found a surprising number at music events. At the Marrowstone Music Festival, a big symphony gathering at Western Washington University, I met three. We're everywhere.

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I think every time I have worn a robotics t-shirt while coaching at a cross country meet I have had at least one person from another team come over to say hi. Our FRC team has a lot of XC and track athletes because I coach all three sports. Not sure why there seem to be so many crossover athletes on other teams but there do seem to be. One year at Crossroads some of my kids almost pulled off having an informal race. They found four other FRC teams with enough runners to make a full cross country team.

I often where an FRC polo shirt when I fly, because more often than not I make a connection with someone along the way who is involved in FRC. On one flight the woman sitting next to me and I talked for about two hours about sensor integration and how to find good human players.

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It's in Minnesota. Lol that was me

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At my old job at a grocery store near me, someone came through my lane wearing a 1501 t-shirt that she apparently got from a family member? (Huntington is relatively close to Fort Wayne, but it was still a tad surprising)

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While it wasn't unusual for me to meet FRC people at MIT (or see people wearing team shirts), it was very odd when I saw a kid wearing a sweatshirt from my team in Florida. Mainly because we haven't had another student at from my school at MIT in decades, it was ~10-11pm coming off the subway station (so not a tour or anything like that) and I didn't recognize the person at all.

Turns out he was a 79 alum. 79 and 744 have always had a good relationship and I guess he traded with someone.

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The grocery store.

There was a random kid I didn't recognise who had an FRC game pin on their school blazer. It might seem "normal" to some, but when there were no teams on the continent 7 years earlier, it's pretty cool!

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The opera.
Several years ago, the parents of the Team Captain of one of the local team sat in the row in front of us. I think they were also mentors to that team. Last night, the coach for an FLL team was sitting next to us. I had just met her at the FLL Kickoff the previous Saturday.

A cruise ship.
Last December, I met the head mentors (husband and wife) of a Dallas area FRC team on the first day, before we had even left the dock. We met up a few times more over the next few days. Their team were finalists at the Lone Star Regional this year.

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Bathroom at Istanbul airport

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I remember the rest stop!! On our way down to NC this year right?

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That's right! It was on the way to NC! I don't remember what state the stop was in but what were the odds of us meeting at the same rest stop for lunch at the same time on such a long trip? Thanks for remembering that. Good times.

Edit:Pardon my misspell from my previous post. I usually catch such an obvious English mistake before posting.

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A few years ago my high school jazz band went to the jazz festival hosted by Rolling Meadows High School. Not knowing the school had an FRC team, walking towards our homeroom for the day I passed by a blue banner hanging up. Thinking, "Oh! They have a team!", I saw another dozen banners before realizing exactly which team it was...

Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet anyone from 111 that day.

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I was wearing a Robostangs shirt to driver's ed and it got recognized.

And when I was flying to a wedding I was wearing my team shirt, a TSA agent knew us!

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I suppose it's not exactly unlikely, but I still find it funny:

I've set aside Wednesdays outside of build season this year to be a night off from robotics, when my husband (also a mentor) and I can go play games at one of our local game shops. Of course, I got into a conversation about robots with my opponent, and somebody at the next table over asked me "I hear you talking about robots and CNC... do you do FIRST?"

Turns out that our day off from robotics is actually our day of hanging out with another local lead mentor.

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I met a FIRST volunteer at an ice cream competition in the historic center of my town. She was wearing the big plastic merch earrings.

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I was in the vendor area at DefCon this summer (24K people at a hacker conference) and talked with someone wearing a Stronghold shirt. His son, a team member, was there.

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I got a new one.

This week, I was at Oracle's OpenWorld conference (their major developers conference with 60,000+ attendees) demoing our robot and presenting the robotics team. While there, I happened to meet the dad of a student on Team 766, which was a pretty chance occurrence considering the amount of people there!

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in a Mcdonald by one of the cashier you knew me but i didnt

in a plane coming back from champ too mineapolis

at my job

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Panic! At The Disco and Weezer concert in Toronto. I saw the 5406 Celt-X logo on the back of the green sweater from all the way down the train platform.

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Saw someone wearing a Citrus Circuits shirt at ACL today. I didn't get a chance to jump up and say something, but if you're reading this, greetings from CT!

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At a 4th of July parade in Philadelphia, I saw an entire float dedicated to Team 4575. It honestly never occurred to me that I would see a team at that time an place.

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Resurrecting this thread from 2003.

https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...+shirt+ today

November 1 – FIRST T-shirt day.

Wear your shirts Tuesday Nov 1 and see who you see….

Post it to your social media accounts. We have 1 month to spread the word.

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Twas me! Hi from TX!

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I just got home from doing stuff and saw someone in my neighborhood wearing a 3176 sweatshirt. If it's who I think it is, they have a CD account. Don't want to mention a name though because I might be wrong. :D

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At a park in Seattle, Washington while visiting the city. I don't remember from which team though :(

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Check your user cp. I might have an idea.