Every student and mentor on our team has left an imprint, however, the person who had the biggest impact on me from the 2004 season is a young kid whose name I don't even know. (here's a
picture of him ) He was a student on a FIRST Lego team and I met him at the tournament our team helped out with. I believe he was either a 5th grader or a 6th grader, but while other kids his age admired our robot and asked the usual "Battle Bots" questions and joked with their friends about what they would do with a robot like ours, he quietly examined every single part of the robot, occasionally looking up to ask me a question about specific parts... sometimes they were questions I couldn't answer. He watched every video we had playing twice! Whenever his team had to compete, they had to come and drag him away. Whenever his team finished a match, he came right back. After a while, he sat on the floor with me and we talked "robotics". He had watched the 2003 Championships on the NASA channel and was eager to discuss the game. Finally, keeping my fingers crossed but dreading the answer, I asked him what high school he was zoned for. I could have cried when he said "South Lakes". South Lakes is where the Herndon team started, and while I'm not 100% sure why they left, I've heard it was messy. At the end of the day, he brought his family by to see our robot. I gave him and his family my e-mail address and an invite to visit our team during the build season. I also gave him some contact information for a local team consisting of home schooled students and students from schools that do not have teams. He still has a few years of middle school before high school, so maybe things will change, maybe his family will move and he'll go to a school that has a team. Or maybe South Lakes will change their mind... Or his parents will let me adopt him (okay, so that's not going to happen, but still...)
I left the tournament a little broken-hearted over his situation, but I also left with a wonderful feeling that "this" is what outreach is all about. And as corny as it may sound, it made me feel a connection to FIRST that I hadn't felt before because to me (and to way too many other people, I'm sure) FIRST was always about "my team". It's not anymore. Don't get me wrong, I am still completely dedicated to my team, but when I go to competitions now, I'm cheering for everyone.
Heidi