Chesapeake Regional Thanks

[RoboMom]

This will be a long list. Thanks to:
• The 58 teams who had to battle vicious rain/snow/ice/wind/shuttle buses/ access passes/drop offs/sickness to make it to Halsey Field House.
• All those teams helping other teams, making for proudest moments in FIRST. This area had weather challenges during week six of the build, and there were many robots that needed a lot of help on Thursday.
• All our Student Ambassadors who did a fantastic job in showing their passion for the program and showing the VIP’s and the media what FIRST means to them. You impressed a lot of influential people.
• The judges who had a very tough job. We had a lot of new judges and their enthusiasm for the program and all of you will have a big ripple effect in this area.
• Every team who received an award and every team who deserved an award, even if they did not go home with the hardware.
• The group I introduce as the “future of FIRST.” The FIRST alumni who continue to mentor AND traveled from at least 6 states to volunteer at the Chesapeake and filled many of the lead positions.
• all the volunteers-our tireless Americorps crew (who are headed tomorrow to Louisiana to work on a Katrina aftermath project), the great ref crew, inspectors, team queuing, the pit divas, safety inspectors, scoring table, announcer, emcee, clean-up and set-up crew, and those great singers from the UK and the American teams.
• To all students and mentors who took time out to thank the organizers. You were polite and respectful and it made dealing with the problems so much easier.
• Our hosts, the United States Naval Academy.
The Needel family and Team 768 who designed and created the "Maryland Mentor" button, each personalized, for every mentor in MD.
• I hope you had fun and we want you all back in 2008!

[BlondeNerd]

Thanks to Team 75 for hosting an awesome team social on Friday night! We came and partied and we didn't even have to leave the hotel! It was great getting to meet your team before competing against you guys in the finals. The social made a great weekend even better! Thank you so much!

[Priyadarshy]

612 really wanted to come but the weather did not permit!

[Robyn Needel]

Thank you Jenny for all that you did to make the Regional a success. It was our pleasure to help you and we hope that next year, we will have to make a lot more Maryland Mentor buttons