[Ken Leung]

I want to congratulate not just on your fine work on this year's robot, but also your courage to leap to a newer level not many people in FIRST have thought of. It is easy to talk about an idea, I've done it many times, including the idea of 2 teams working together to create a pair of robots that compliment each other in the competition of alliances. But to implement the idea, to make it happen, against all possible opposition from people who might consider this unfair or even "cheating", that takes true courage, and dedication to the purpose of your program.

Those who know these two team will agree with me, they are 2 of the most successful teams in FIRST who did very well at competition, and most important of all, made a difference on their students. This collaboration effort only tells me they want to be more successful than ever, and in my opinion, did exactly that. The message I see from this isn't "look at us, we are better than you". Instead, I see "we understand that we can learn from each other and put both teams' experience to create a better program for our students." Just look at what Amanda M said in her message. I would not believe the same thing would've been said from a student few years ago.

I still remember a time when FIRST was about "you or me". Students on my old team used to look down on rivalry teams and vice-versa. We used to have really bad attitudes against others who were successful in the competition. But things changed when alliance first got introduced, then even more so at 2001 with the game of 4 teams on an alliance, and finally when organizations like WRRF, SCRRF, IndianaFIRST got started. Now its about "you and me", and the idea that effort of a group benefit each team much more than efforts of individuals fighting against each other, with the ultimate purpose of inspiring and educating the students about science and technology.

This collaboration effort is a perfect example of how much FIRST have grown. Instead of doing the same thing all the time, these two teams always strive to better themselves every yeah, and break new grounds for others to follow. That is truly inspiring. I cannot wait to see how this is going to turn out. If anything, this got me thinking about a FIRST I never imagined could be possible.

Great job! Hats off to Team 60 and 254 for something new to this program. Like most new things, there will be criticisms as well as agreements. But it only means you are getting people to start doing their own thinking.