Sincere thanks and congratulations from 'team xbot'

[Madison]

I wanted to take a few minutes to thank and let everyone know about the fantastic experiences 'team xbot' had while in Atlanta this weekend.

Foremost, as I've mentioned previously, we're enormously indebted to the fantastic Mark Leon for taking time from undoubtedly busy schedule to stop by a special "Ice Cream Social," organized by our team on Thursday evening.

To celebrate the achievements of our team and those teams we've had the great pleasure of working with this season, we invited teams 2046 -- Tahoma Robotics Club from Covington, WA, 2024 -- Waiakea HS from Hilo, HI, and 1983 -- The Skunkworks from Seattle, WA -- to a special party at our hotel. We'd planned to have snacks and music, socializing and maybe even some singing -- but decided before leaving that the icing on the cake, so to speak, would be to have the MC from both the Pacific Northwest and Silicon Valley Regional as our guest. I tried to find some way of getting in touch with Mark before we left Seattle but failed and, in any case, expected we'd waited far too long to invite him to come.

On Thursday, some of the students on my team made it their mission to track down Mark and invite him to the party that evening. I didn't expect they'd have any luck finding him, especially if it required that they trek into those special places he was likely to be, so you can imagine my surprise when I received a phone call late in the afternoon from one our students letting me know that they'd found him and didn't know how to best ask him to come. I'd bet they were a bit nervous. I don't remember what I said to my students or what they eventually said to Mark, but it worked. We were honored and thrilled to have Mark stop by our party and share some stories of his work with NASA.

Mark -- thank you so much for taking the time to meet with the students from our teams. A student told me on Thursday that you were her hero and she meant it sincerely. Being there for them was a highlight of their trip and the words of advice and thanks you offered were amazing. I hope you were able to find some more comfortable shoes to wear for the MCing gig.

I'd also like to extend our gratitude to our alliance partners in the Galileo elimination rounds -- teams 1425 and 25.

Team 1425 recognized our team with a special award during the 2006 season that has become a treasured bit of recognition for our team from a season that was otherwise very difficult. We were excited for the chance to work with them again at the Pacific Northwest event this season and enormously impressed and proud of the outstanding achievements they earned this season. They are a fantastic, friendly bunch of people.

Team 25 gets a lot of attention around our shop as the quintessential example of a FIRST powerhouse team. My formative years in FIRST were spent on the East coast and teams like 25 helped shape my vision of what a great team could be, so when I work with the kids out here, I reference a lot of what they've never seen or experienced to give them some idea of how vast the pool of experience and talent in FIRST is.

Team 488 was enormously thrilled (really, you have no idea -- I never scream for anything and Andy Baker and Paul Copioli got an earful from me) to be selected by these teams as their alliance partner for the elimination rounds. We were excited for the chance to work again with a team from our home regional and to work with a team as esteemed and respected as 25. As I'm sure they each do, we regret that our partnership did not last longer, but simply being there with two fantastic teams was a memorable experience for our team. We look forward to every opportunity we have in the future to work side by side with you all.

I want to share my team's appreciation for our inspector, Tytus Gerrish, for being the best, most amicable inspector we've had this season and, indeed, one of the nicest I've met in years. He made inspection fun and the kids were certainly entertained by my stories of your flamethrower. I understand they stole your pizza or something? I'm not sure what really happened there, but I hope the kids didn't do anything too inappropriate.

I want to thank and recognize Andy Baker for stopping by our pit and meeting some of my kids and for working with us and others to find a solution that would keep a team on the field competing. After you'd left, a lot of the kids on my team seemed a bit shocked that all of the parts we bought from AndyMark were developed by a genuine, nice person. I don't know what they were expecting, but I suppose it's not unreasonable to expect that many perceive engineering-type folks to be a bit unapproachable and Andy is anything but. Our lead mentor, Donna, was also excited to see that she was giving all of our money to a very nice guy.

Personally, Andy's been an enormously supportive, helpful mentor to me for years and years now and I'm always honored that he would take the time to talk with me during the height of competition.

(Does this sound like I'm accepting an Academy Award yet? I'm waiting for the orchestra to start up at any moment.)

Again personally, I want to thank all of the wonderful people that said hello all weekend long. I'm very shy and I keep to myself, if you'd believe it, and so I was freaking out a little bit that so many people seemed to recognize me -- but once I got over it, it was nice to see everyone again or meet y'all for the first time -- Jessica Boucher, Andy Grady, Ken Patton, Dave (Sanddrag), Billfred, Joel Johnson, Paul Copioli, Tim McCay, George Wallace, Mike Walker, Tytus, Andy Y., Joe Ross ... probably more that I'm forgetting.

Thank you, everyone.

[Alexa Stott]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

Team 25 gets a lot of attention around our shop as the quintessential example of a FIRST powerhouse team. My formative years in FIRST were spent on the East coast and teams like 25 helped shape my vision of what a great team could be, so when I work with the kids out here, I reference a lot of what they've never seen or experienced to give them some idea of how vast the pool of experience and talent in FIRST is.

Team 488 was enormously thrilled (really, you have no idea -- I never scream for anything and Andy Baker and Paul Copioli got an earful from me) to be selected by these teams as their alliance partner for the elimination rounds. We were excited for the chance to work again with a team from our home regional and to work with a team as esteemed and respected as 25. As I'm sure they each do, we regret that our partnership did not last longer, but simply being there with two fantastic teams was a memorable experience for our team. We look forward to every opportunity we have in the future to work side by side with you all.

Thank you, as well, for being a GREAT alliance partner. We were all excited to play with some teams that we generally don't see (as you guys are located all the way across the country). We really enjoyed being paired with you guys and 1425. We simply could not believe you were not picked by the time our alliance was able to select the last team.