Quote:
Originally Posted by JaneYoung
My first competition experience with FIRST was the Lone Star Regional in Houston. I'd like to back up to the Kick Off. We traveled to Houston to watch it along with other teams from the surrounding area. The travel with the team was great and the Kick Off was inspiring. I wondered what we were about to do. Then build, then competition. The whole process was one eye opening experience after another. At LSR I loved everything from the teams' spirit to the competition itself. But, my heart was in the pits. I loved the pit area. It was so awe inspiring and fun watching the teams work together on the robots and also how they worked with each other. I loved the volunteers and the staff and their enthusiasm and support. And I could dance in the stands like nobody was watching - because they weren't, they were all dancing too! That was the year I went through the stands with pen and paper and wrote down everyone's email address and information and we formed the Parents' Association to help support the team. We've never looked back since - only forward. It's the hardest fun we've ever had.
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I've been thinking about this thread since it's been 'resurrected'. I knew I had made a post and searched for it to see if it had said everything I was thinking at the time. It did. But... now, I'm thinking about another aspect of that first experience that I respected but didn't fully understand at the the time. The importance of volunteering at the competition event.
I didn't understand that the majority of the people wearing the volunteer shirts came from teams like mine and from interested members of the community. I thought they magically appeared for a few days to help celebrate the event. Around 2006, I decided to begin volunteering for events and one of the first ones was the Florida Regional. It was because 1902's Wendy Austin invited me to come to the regional and I realized that I could also volunteer while I was there. That opened the door to the wonderful world of volunteering to me. From there, I realized that I could volunteer at off-seasons and that I could volunteer at my home regional, too. From there, I realized that I could volunteer for FTC and FLL events, too. Somewhere in there, I realized that I could volunteer at the Championship event. It was when I was fully involved in discovering the opportunities that volunteering at FIRST events and off-seasons provide - that I really felt like I was helping to strengthen the program and to understand a bigger part of the picture.
The program is continuing to grow and competition events are springing up around us, in need of volunteers. Without the volunteers, the events can't happen. Without the events, the teams can't reach their potential. Without teams reaching potential, regions struggle.
This is where I am in my thinking 10 years after attending my first FIRST event. I celebrate that experience and I celebrate it in the way I expressed in my first post in this thread. But.. I've grown in the time since this thread was initially created and since 2006. I blame it all on Wendy Austin.
Jane