[Kims Robot]

So I keep reading through this thread, and I was brought back to Lindsay's post and the posts of several people who have "met the triplets"

Everyone keeps saying how inspired the team is, how inspirational they are, etc... And maybe this goes off topic a little, but I would like to hear some stories of how this collaboration exactly "inspires" in a DIFFERENT way from normal teams (yes we are all driven to beat the best of the best, yes we all learn how to use tools we never would have touched outside FIRST, yes all of us gain confidence to meet others, to work with other teams, etc), so what is different??

I'm really glad that Lindsay, and the other students are "inspired" but from everything I have read (and no, I really haven't met their students), I think many of us would benefit in knowing EXACTLY how they are inspired... give us some of the crazy/cool stories, show us how collaboration is different... why the teams chose to continue collaborating this year, what the rest of the world can gain from this.... help us learn all this, instead of just bickering back and forth, "my way is better" "no my way is better".

What I am looking for is the "above and beyond" stories... for example, we end up talking a lot with our janitors late at night... one of them got so involved he came to the local regional last year, and again this year... by the end of this year, he told us that he now wants to go back to college because of all he has seen with us! (Yes I know this has nothing to do with "collaboration", but I'm looking for the stories that make the collaboration different from just "mentoring" rookie FIRST teams like most other teams do.)

I think these stories (because I'm sure they are there) would be incredibly effective in convincing this forum and many others of the true effectiveness of the collaboration... because I think everyone here is getting too defensive/offensive because we don't know the real deal. Everyone keeps saying "well go talk to us/them in their pit" ok ok I get that, but its not going to stop this thread from escalating...