Congratulations "Flo" 2006 IRI Mentor of the Year

[Allison]

What can we say about Steve "Flo" Florence that isn’t apparent by his great attitude, calm composure, excellent knowledge, and his amazing leadership? Mr. Florence, the head mentor of 461, West Side Boiler Invasion, was one of the leading reasons that our team was created. He kept pushing and pushing for a team to be created at Harrison High School, and after long and hard dedication to a just cause, a team was finally created. We started off the year as rookies, not knowing anything about the robotics world, but proud of our 1747. Once the build season started, his support never wavered. He was always there for our team. He helped us get its feet off the ground by offering us parts and help, even though he himself had a team to run. As the build season came to a close, he was still there to help and guide us through the regional and championship events. If we had a problem, needed a part, or needed advice, you would always end up hearing, "Someone go grab Flo," and it always seemed that, he would come right over and give us a hand. When the season ended, our team ran into troubles. Our leadership crumbled and our team was in shambles, there was no mentor that did, or could step up to guide us, and we dissipated as a team. It was Mr. Florence who came and took up the flag for our team, bring us all back together and making our team a reality again. He helped us by organizing meetings, and getting the robot from our old shop and bringing it to his shop at his school, so that we could work on it. He helped us repair and modify the robot, while still helping his team prepare for IRI. He got us prepared for IRI, and is even running our team and making sure that we are all working properly. Going into IRI, we had no tools, no batteries, not even a tether. The only thing we have is our robot, and our controls. Flo has provided us with everything we need, from tools, to drills, to batteries, and even giving us a tether. It is completely true, that if it wasn’t for Flo, we would not be at IRI, we would all be sitting at home, but Flo has kept us together. Our team will owe the rest of our existence to Mr. Steve Florence, known to most as Flo, but known by us as superman.

Ditto.

Flo is a man Ive really gotten to know better over the years, and I really believe he is the example of not only a mentor, but a mentor who goes beyond the call of duty, (see above post for example).

Congratulations again!

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

Flo is incredible.

[Freddy Schurr]

Congratulations to Flo; what a cool name!

[Elyse Holguin]

i concur. so as not to repeat myself, see here

[Lisa Perez]

Congratulations on this honor, Mr. Florence! It was great to meet you at IRI.

[Rich Kressly]

I had the honor of briefly meeting Flo for the first time at IRI and I've read about him more than once here on CD. The award could not have gone to a finer individual.

[Nikhil Bajaj]

Flo was a mentor of mine during high school, and even as I have been mentoring high school students through college he continues to be a mentor figure to me. He is truly an inspiring individual...I nearly cried when he won his Regional Woodie Flowers award.