Chesapeake WF Award

[tkwetzel]

As most people already know, Dave is an amazing guy! He stays busier than anyone else I have ever known and still takes his time to help FIRST, team 116, and it's members. He is greatly into enineering and building things, that when approached by a student, or even former student, to help with a project he is willing and EAGER to help. I have never seen him turn anyone away when being asked for help or guidance.

I went to college this past year and built a chopper with a friend. It was a lot of fun and everyone has seen that Dave enjoyed it too! I went home over thanksgiving break with the thought that I was owning it (my friend was the one who initially purchased everything) and took it back over to Dave's house with some ideas in my head. I had previously given him two sets (8 wheels) of alloy car wheels to melt down in his forge or to use for whatever. I was thinking that if the wheels had not been used or a project planned with them, I could melt them down in Dave's forge and cast/machine some custom wheels for the chopper. When I got to Dave's house and told him of the idea, he quickly got to thinking and asking questions (he wouldn't just give me answers). He said that they may be too soft and weak to support the chopper, so I said that it would be fun to do anyways just to say that I made custom wheels for my chopper and I would use them if I could and would use the current wheels if the custom ones were too weak. I told him that I would like to learn a lot about metalworking which was part of the reason I wanted to make the wheels. Dave helped me think a lot of things through and said he was ready to help more, but I needed to have a drawing to go any further. I ended up scraping the idea when we decided to sell the chopper (which never happened) and have not returned to it since. But Dave's willingness and eagerness to help me and devote time to such a project shows his passion for engineering and helping others.

CONGRATULATIONS DAVE, you really deserve this!!! You have inspired me!