[Dan Petrovic]

We have been awarded the Gracious Professionalism award three times since 2008, due to helping teams in distress.

2008, Wisconsin Regional - This was my senior year and our robot, while not great, was solid. It never had any failures, so during our second competition of the year, our pit crew spent more time working with and helping other teams with their robots than our own. In the end, we had helped 7 teams get robots onto the field.

2010, BAE Systems Granite State Regional - I was not with the team at the time, but for the past few years, we had often packed our pit with everything imaginable for the strict purpose of loaning parts out to other teams. This has been our culture for the past couple of years. If any team needed anything we would be the first to provide it.

2015, NE Pioneer Valley District Event - We have a lot of history with one of FIRST's Hall of Fame teams - Team 151, the Tough Techs, from Nashua, NH. Back in 2001, 166 lost their sponsorship and approached 151's primary sponsor, BAE Systems, to ask for support. Not only did BAE provide sponsorship, they also invited us into their facilities to work. This meant that 151 would now be sharing their long-time work space with another team. Instead of being resentful of the situation, they welcomed 166 with open arms and helped breathe new life into 166. Neither team works out BAE Systems anymore, but it was an important step in reviving our team.

We returned the favor this past year as, long story short, 151 completely lost access to their school's well-equipped machine shop and were now working out of a space that, to my understanding, was a teacher's office. Given our history with them, we invited them to our work space at Merrimack High School and offered to machine parts for them. We also worked with their administration to help them regain access to their machine shop.

We didn't help 151 in hopes of winning a trophy. We helped them because they had done the same for us in the past and would absolutely do the same for us in the future. In fact, we gave one of our trophies to them because they earned it as much as we did. It was a trophy they had deserved and had missed since 2001.

Our biggest victories though, come every night when an alumni mentor arrives to work with the team. A large number of our mentors at this point are Chop Shop alumni and that speaks volumes to what FIRST is about.3

One last thing: Despite all of the snow that this region experienced, we were able to get a fully-functional robot with a completely working autonomous mode before the end of build season. I don't think our team has ever had a working autonomous heading into our first week of competition.