UFH: Dan Larochelle

[Kyle Love]

Dan's the man! He saved FVC 137's butt at the St Louis VEX regional last year, we had no real programmer and he took the time to basically train our "programmer" how to really program the robot. I can not say thank you to Dan enough!

[Conor Ryan]

Wow, after reading the Bio, all I can say is thank you, and I'm sure too many teams can agree.

[tiffany34990]

Congrats! So many great mentors in FIRST, we couldn't do it without Mr. Larochelle or the many others. Thank you!

[JamesBrown]

To add yet another story of a team that Dan and Team 40 has helped, this year we had a tendency to break the center out of our skyway wheels, we didn't know about this until the Manchester regional, we only had one spare. We mentioned the problem to a few teams and Dan and a couple of team 40's members came over, they went back to their shop that night and brought us their spare skyways the next day.

When I heard in Boston that team 40 had not won a regional I was amazed. My first exposure to FIRST robots (other than the one we built) was at a scrimmage in Quincy (hosted by team 69) last year. The first bot I saw was team 40's triple play bot, which was incredibly well designed. I didn't think we could compete. Luckily 40's robots are among the best. Their robot this year was just as impressive and turned plenty of heads when the wheeled it into the Quincy Scrimmage. We had a great time playing with and against Dan and Team 40 this year in Boston and Manchester.


James

[Francis-134]

Congratulations Dan! Thank you very much for your years of hard work for not only team 40, but for every team you have changed along the way. Now, I have a little story to tell you all about Dan (the following was included in the submission for Dan for the BattleCry 7 STAR award, which he was fortunate enough to win.

Many people say that they are addicted to FIRST, or that they are “FIRST-a-holics”. However, few match the unyielding dedication and passion of Dan Larochelle. During the 2004 season, our team discovered that there was simply no room to setup even a half sized field in the area where we build the robot. Dan tried to amend the situation by allowing the team to use his garage, but that was also too small. So, the only thing to do in his mind was to build a new garage that had inside dimensions of 27 feet by 26 feet, exactly one half the size of a full FIRST field. If that isn't dedication, I don't know what is.

[KathieK]

Congratulations Dan! I have had the pleasure to meet Dan at a number of FIRST events over the last year and Dan always takes the time to talk with you, and more importantly, to listen to what you have to say.

And from Jack: This is a well-deserved honor!

[Crazy Ivan]

Dan has made my time on team 40 very memorable, I cant believe I only have one more year left!!!

The hours he puts into his family, the FIRST team, and his job are unbelievable. I've known him more than 3 years, and I still haven't figured out when he sleeps!!

Congratulations Dan, you totally deserve this honor.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Dan,
Congratulations on the special honor of being an Unsung First Hero. It is always nice to here about the special people that help make this a great program. Help is always close when people like Dan are around.

[gren737]

WHOOhooooo

Go Dan, I'm so glad you finally got your picture on chief delphi!!

I've known Dan and long time and the intensity and compassion he puts into FIRST has never changed, from the story in 1996 where we were the underdog (and that's an understatment) to the last three years taking three second place trophies in a row, his drive and love for the game has always inspired us to work harder and put in 120%. He's a great mentor and as long as he keeps pushing students (and mentors alike) he always will be.

Congrats