[chapman1]

As a mentor for a team of limited budget, I am grateful for the parts that manufacturers offer us. We also try to acknowledge them with at least an email and when possible, photos of our robots that showcase their parts. They all seem to appreciate it.

I suspect that many of them, including Bimba, get overwhelmed with requests in the weeks after kickoff. What has worked well for us, on occasion, is to purchase the parts we will absolutely need, and then plan on receiving the donated parts in time to be used as competition spares, which we would have otherwise had to purchase.

In conclusion, we try to not look too closely into the mouth of the gifted horse, and to be grateful.