Crown Jewel of your Collection

[Koko Ed]

My favorite classic robotics shirt is my Exploding Bacon hockey jersey (I had to buy it). My actual favorite is my custom Angry Eric hockey jersey I had made.

[Wetzel]

I'm a fan of my 258 shirt.

[Michael Corsetto]

Definitely the hand written notes I've received from students on the teams I've mentored. Helps remind me why I do what I do.

[Jon K.]

I have a ton of awesome stuff in my collection, including MOE Sticks (get off my lawn and search the archives here.), tetras from champs my senior year, and a few other cool momentoes from 16 years in FIRST. One of the sweetest things in my collection is the table and chairs set from the IRI auction this year.

Not to get sappy /sentimental, but the best things in my collection are the friends I have made across the world, and some amazing memories I still have from my time on RAGE FRC 173. Also the fact that, because of my experiences in FIRST, I get to work for The Andy Baker at AndyMark doing what I love every day, and knowing that I get to help thousands of students who are just like I once was.

[JesseK]

Physically, the best thing I have is my collection of 28 driver coach buttons from 10 seasons of coaching.

Non-physically, it's the feedback from the kids after they graduate. Some letters evoked emotion, others (like Facebook posts) usually evoke a sense of "woohoo!". It's hard to describe beyond that.

[Jay Trzaskos]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

Definitely the hand written notes I've received from students on the teams I've mentored. Helps remind me why I do what I do.

This, a thousand times over. Medals are nice and shirts are cool, but I've given away enough of both without feeling any loss. But the notes my students have given me over the past years are some of my most prized possessions, FRC or other.

[MamaSpoldi]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

Definitely the hand written notes I've received from students on the teams I've mentored. Helps remind me why I do what I do.

The best items are those from our students, whether they are lessons learned or actual items received they are the reminders of why we do this.

My personal crown jewel is a model of our 2016 robot built using an erector set by a senior on our team that I had worked with since he was a freshman. I had heard him speak many times over the months of build and competition about this model he was working on and how he kept taking it apart to improve it, adding little details, to get it right. When he gave it to me I was speechless... he said it took a lot of taking it apart and trying it a different way, like programming. I was so proud of all he had accomplished over the last 4 years.

Over the years there had been times he thought of quitting or thought he was not capable enough to face the task at hand, but he always decided to keep trying. I will always remember that it was made by the boy who decided he wanted to try... and he succeeded.

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