[debbiemusselman]

It is great to see that there are so many teams that are proud of what they accomplished this season even if they didn't win any awards. I know that being a part of a team that didn't win any awards this season, we were still proud of everything that we had done. This season, there were a lot of things that happened for team 708, both good and bad. We didn't set any team goals this season that I remember but we definitely accomplished more than we thought was originally possible.

Some of our team victories that we accomplished this season include:
-Getting our own classroom instead of working out of a closet on the third floor.
-Hosting a very successful week 1 MAR District event
-Hosting a successful Penn FLL Qualifying Event during week 2 of FRC build season
-Hosting an FLL Summer Camp
-Demoing our robot at the Pennsylvania State Capitol and being recognized by both the House and the Senate for what we do in spreading the word of FIRST.
-Running 2 FTC teams
-Mentoring 3 FLL teams
-Attending outreach events to spread the word of FIRST and allowing community members to drive and operate our robots
-Have semi-nice looking wiring compared to past robots.
-Having a robot that could pick up off the ground quite easily, shoot, truss and play defense.
-Offered build space to team 341 when the weather was bad and they weren't allowed in to their build space.
-Had more team spirit than ever before and we actually cheered for our team when they were on the field.
-One of our seniors along with the help of a few others worked their butts off to make a scrapbook for Chairman's to make sure that everything we do that doesn't have to do with the robot is noticed. This same person/group of people wrote the essay for Chairman's and also Woodie Flowers.

Overall, we definitely had a lot of fun this season and even though all of our efforts were not noticed by the judges at any of the events we attended, we all know that we had a really great season. Our head mentor, Zygmont, even told us after we weren't picked to compete in eliminations at MAR Champs that he was really proud of everything that we did this season not only with the robot but with everything else that we did for others. Therefore, some of our biggest accomplishments had nothing to do with our robot but what we do as a team to spread the word of FIRST.

I am really proud to be a part of team 708 and with it being my senior year, I am really glad that I got the opportunity to experience World Champs in St. Louis with my fellow seniors and volunteering to ensure that everyone that was competing had the time of their lives and supporting our fellow MAR teams. We had a great season and it is sad to see my time on the team come to an end but I will definitely be back to see what the following years have to bring the team.