[M. Mellott]

As GTR is the origin of the Safety Award, which later was adopted by FIRST, it's impressive just to receive the Honorable Mention at GTR. I know it's an award that our team hopes to earn there every year, one that is highly competitive due to so many teams there trying for it. This was the first year Team 48 was unable to attend GTR, where we've learned many lessons over the years from the ever-diligent judges from Bruce Power. It was those lessons that helped our team earn the UL Safety Award at all three regionals we attended this year.

Our kids have always put a lot of team effort into our safety program year-round, from our shop to the Regionals to our community robot demonstrations. It's those efforts that make safety a core component of our team, and those efforts turn into common practices that are most noticed by the judges at competitions from the moment we walk in the venue. Sure, we've become known for our little army of Safety Escorts, and we do safety handouts as well. But, as mentioned in previous posts, it's the little "acts of safety" that I see a student doing when they don't know someone's watching that often gets a judge's attention, and the student gets a quick compliment from the judge to help reinforce the fact that they are doing something right, not something wrong. I always loved that about GTR...a safety judge appearing seemingly out of thin air to deliver an at-a-boy (and sometimes a safety token).

I must say I've really been impressed with the creative and inspiring ways teams promote safety throughout FIRST. It's just another way FIRST is changing the mindset of the newest batch of this world's engineers.