[Steve W]

I have believed that the most important thing about the Chairmans award is what you get out of the process. It is great to win of course but that is not the thing that should drive teams. The fact that we are forced to look at our team yearly and say "What have we done this year?" keeps us on track. The team that I am on is not a large team ( average 30 ) but we have a team to be proud of. The kids start with VEX and mentor the new students on the team in how to build. At the same time they are going to the grade schools in our area and mentoring the kids in Lego. This stretches our team a lot but the kids do it without any help from the mentors.

There are times that we do community events but not to win awards but because the kids feel that it is important. They are proud to show their team colors when doing it. They do demos for TV, the Premier, other schools and anywhere that they are invited. They are always willing to give others a hand before, during and after build season.

When they look back on what the team has done in the past ten years they see a legacy that they all want to improve on and continue. The amount of teams, volunteers, mentors, RWFA and WFA that have come from this team is inspiring in itself. The fact that when they do the submission they see how FIRST has impacted so many lives and that they are continuing the great work started so many years ago makes them want to do better. Not for the medal but for others.

The Chairmans award should be done by all teams every year. Even past winners should be looking back at how they got there and what are they doing now to retain that level of excellence.

It's not about a team having lots of money to spend to travel the world to share FIRST but how the team draws the world into their FIRST experience.