New Flag Donated to FRC Team 225

[Jeremy Hudek]

Hello, ChiefDelphi World! This is my first post ever on this site, so bear with me.

I don't know if this post will be taken down because of the guidelines, and I don't even know if I am in the wrong forum, but I will give this post a shot. I don't know if this post will make it through by the moderators, but I think it will get posted.

When I was at the Indiana Robotics Invitational a couple weeks ago, I want to give an FRC team a surprise while I was there. I gave the team a nice-looking brand new flag.

The FRC team was Team 225, TechFire. They are based out of York, Pennsylvania. And if you ever checked them out, trust me, they are a powerhouse!

Over the past three years they have been awesome. They have won numerous competitions, including the MAR Springside-Chestnut Hill Event three times, they have won the Greater DC Regional, and they are the MAR Championships for this year. They have also won many awards including Excellence in Engineering awards, and a couple Dean's List finalists. Talk about hard work!

They also do a lot of outreach events and volunteer many hours at community events over the summer, spreading the word of FIRST. Heck, I wish my robotics team was like this more often!

They also have a lot of mentors who are very passionate about FIRST and the impact on the youth due to this amazing program. They also know a lot about the yearly games and they have amazing strategies to share.

But what touches me the most is their story and their mission. York, Pennsylvania was a booming manufacturing town. But due to outsourcing, jobs were lost and there was literally no hope for this town. I can relate to this story. I live in a city called Joliet, Illinois, which is near Chicago, and it was also a booming manufacturing town as well. There was a huge steel mill that provided my city jobs, but also due to outsourcing, it was shut down due to global competiveness. I believe that with this FIRST robotics program, many jobs such as engineering, programming, and mechatronics would be created and provide hope for the future. I believe York is a key city for these professions.

But enough of their story, let's get to the point. The reason I donated Techfire225 a brand new team flag is because I was so proud of their accomplishments and their mission. I would have given them a large sum of money, but I wanted to do something different by improving their branding and image.

In the past, they used a flag that I believed it wasn't going to help them in the future. As the team gets new students, mentors, and sponsors, I believe that this professionally-made flag will show how great and professional they REALLY are.

TechFire was not the first FRC team that I gave them a brand new flag. I gave my local robotics team, team 4241, Joliet Cyborgs, a brand new flag for their team. Like 225's old flag, I didn't think it was the best interest of the team, so two days before my high school graduation ceremony, I surprised the media mentor of the team with a nice, printed, professionally made flag. I was recognized at my school's Board of Education meeting and the Cyborgs' community exhibition, where they showed the public their robot. I was even featured on local newspapers.

I'm not posting this thread for fame, but I would just like to share this to anyone that cares. I know this is my first post on ChiefDelphi, but I just want anyone to know how graciously professional I am.