[nalbonec]

As a mentor for rookie team 1807 from Allentown, NJ, all that goes into running a FIRST team is quite daunting. However, I'm quickly learning in my short time in the program that those involved have just as much a passion for teaching as building.

A recent example of this is our experience with Team 293 from Hopewell Valley Central HS. 293 invited our team to the shop at their school on consecutive Saturdays in December to teach us about FIRST. The focus was on working with 80/20 building materials, along with the tools needed to manipulate this material. Both students and mentors from 293 thoroughly explained this process to us, and provided us with a potential checklist of items that we'll likely need to obtain during the upcoming season.

On top of this, 293 filled up one of the robot kit boxes with an assortment of gears, wheels, motors and pneumatics that they had collected over their years in the program, as a starter kit for us to prototype with.

We are extremely grateful to them for their hospitality, and look forward to allying with them in 2006 and beyond.

Sincerely,
Chris Nalbone
Team 1807 Mentor