[Jessica Boucher]

Although I would like to thank all of our UTC Volunteers, I would like to make a special post about a particular group of them.

Months ago, I recieved word from our Regional Chair that Wendy Wooten had contacted us and was offering to bring her team to volunteer at UTC.

You have no idea how glad I was that they came.

We made them highly identifiable "Regional Hosts" shirts, and they ended up doing everything from filling empty spots on Thu & Fri, to speaking with VIPs and media, giving tours, helping out with awards...anything you can imagine to make a regional run smoothly. They were courteous, resourceful, and always willing to help, which is everything you could want in a volunteer.

I encourage every regional to adopt a team as their hosts, and I encourage every team to offer themselves to a regional that they will not be competiting at. All the positive feedback about UTC could not have been possible without all of the volunteers, but as a new Coordinator in one of the country's most visible events, having a team there who already knew about FIRST and were willing to help everywhere was amazing.

I don't know if I would have stayed involved in FIRST if I hadn't been bit by the volunteering bug at a very early age through the media tent at Nationals. Giving team members that taste before they graduate shows them that there are many ways to be at an event, and I highly encourage bringing an entire team to volunteer.

Again, thank you!!!