How did you thank your engineers/mentors/sponsors this year?

[Franchesca]

This truly great!! The opportunity I needed to praise my mentors!

As far as the entire team goes .. we haven't officially recognized ALL of our mentors ... just a few with a framed paper with most of our team's members signatures (and a thought) on it! In my opinion not the best since the idea to do so came from two of our mentors and not really from the team.

Personally, however, in the way back from the Championships I bought a several 'Thank You' cards and wrote a personal tought on it and gave it to our mentors and to all of our team's members. This was still not the best ... but at least it was something! So this is the best opportunity to give them ALL the credit they soo much deserve!

Teacher Mentors:
Michael Osterman (Lead Teacher, Magnet Program) - I am in so many different level in debt to this man! He is truly remarkable. He was the one that accepted Stephen Kowski (wonderful) idea of starting a robotics team in our school! He has helped with a lot of the planning, supervising, dealing with the administration! He drove to both the Peachtree regional and the Champioship in his car and carried with him batteries, tools, everything we couldn't cary on the plane (regional) and everything we left behind for the championships! He has always involved the kids while building the robot ... and he never has stopped cheering us on!! I couldn't picture our team without him!
Jason Broughton (Science Dept. Chair) - Wow, he is truly one of the most essential people to our team when we have gone to the competitions. Poor thing almost maxed his credit card on us. He has found our accomodations, all of our paperwork, our transport, our dinner (although I'm seriously not happy about Golden Corral), everything ... He was in school during build season everyday until un-godly hours. He didn't even go home the entire night that the robot was supposed to be shipped out ... no sleep ... no rest ... ok you get the idea! I can't say enough about him, he's truly great!!
William Vasden (Science Dept. Physics) - Our create builder and soo much more!! He has always kept our team in check ... our disciplinary mentor!! Make sure that we represent our team to the fullest with 'Gracious Profesionalism'. He was also responsible for getting us to the Peachtree Regional and to the Championship!
Bobby Rooks (Technology Dept. Digital Electronics) - 'Mr. Chips' ... the man of the mechanics ... thanks to him and he's shop we were able to have our gears weighed down. He's one of my favorite teachers and mentors in the entire school!! He is a strategist master-mind ... and he is just too cool for words. His humor is awsome and well I just know that next year ... our team is going to owe a lot to him!!
Lisa Culberson (Science Dept. Chemistry) - The only 'official' girl mentor in the team! She was often there to keep an eye on us during build season! She wasn't able to go with us to the competitions but I'm sure that next year she won't miss out on anything!
Myles Vance (Technology Dept. CIM & IED) - As we speak ... Mr. Vance, Mr. Vasden, Stephen Kowski, and Roger Riquelme are coming up with a robotics course for our school! He is an incredible engineer and engineering teacher and I can't wait to have him be a part of our team fully next year!!

College Mentors:
Stephen Kowski - The guy responsible for everything! He came to Mr. Osterman with the idea of starting a FIRST Robotics Team in our school and well truly I couldn't be more thankful to him for that or for everything that he has done for our team! He was the one mainly responsible for teaching our kids everything about 'building a robot'. He has contributed to our team in sooo many ways ... that it would have been impossible to have gotten as far as we have without him! I greatly appreciate him and respect him ... just to be clear !
Roger Riquelme - He was responsible for our Drive Train, our incredible drive train, which is one of the resons why we got the XEROX Creativity Award in the Peachtree Regional!! He is someone that ALL of the kids look up to and are glad to have around! I have learned a great deal from him and I just love having him around! He's truly great!

The Engineer:
Chuck - THE MAN!!!! Chuck ... responsible for our pneumatic arm (the other reason why we got the XEROX Creativity Award)! He is also the man responsible for coming up with the best possible solutions whenever our robot encountered a technical problems at regionals and the Campionships! I only hope that he'll still be with us next year ... we really need him!!

So this is it for the most part and although we weren't really able to recognize their work for our team properly this year ... next year is a completely different story! I already have an idea in mind of what i'm going to do to thank them for next year!!