Most Memorable First Moment

[Dreadfrost]

This is easy to answer.

This year at the 2006 Waterloo regional we knew our rivals 1114 and only one other team were our compitition at winning our first regional chairmans award. Our team had only 4 seasoned members. So our entire chairmans team was full of nOObs, myself being one of them.

At the engineering inspiration award we were pumped hoping for this as our ticket to Atlanta, however team 1114 won it. At this point our team was dissapointed and then someone said "oh my god, oh my god look at Karthik guys!!" It was almost creepy becasue he was staring straight at us with this little grin. At this point Hafize grabbed my shoulder...no like clenched it as if she was having birth. And anyone with 2 sections of our stand could hear her almost yelping with excitement while we were going "QUIET HAFIZE LISTEN TO OUR AMAZING SPEECH!" Once Karthik finished listing our accomplishments and such we went and claimed our award.

NOTE: we realized after that the other team won another award that would have meant they wernt winning chairmans or engineering inspiration. So once 1114 was announced we should have know right away without the stare. BUt honestly though it was the stare and hafize's excitement that made this an amazing first moment.

[Lil' Lavery]

I really don't know.
One of my favorites definitely happened this March though. On Thursday of the VCU Regional, our inspector was so impressed that he stopped our inspection to take pictures of our robot. If that doesn't make you proud of your robot, I have no clue what will.

[Alivia]

Okay, I've been thinking about this, and I might want to change my answer...
(I know it was my own question and it seems silly to want to change my answer, but there are sooo many memorable FIRST moments, it's impossible to narrow them down! hahaha)

This year, Team Hammond was involved in the first ever Green Machine Fuel Cell Competition. I had done extensive amount of work, along with several other team members and mentors to finish the research project.

At the West Michigan Regional, I was just doing my film crew thing--taking pictures, helping with video, etc., when one of the pit crew mentors came up to me and asked if I would like to be the student to represent the team during alliance pickings. Now, usually this honor is bestowed upon someone from the pit crew or the drive team, because they work with the robot more than those from other aspects of the team. Needless to say, I felt EXTREMELY honored that they would chose me to be our team's representative. When I asked why they chose me, my mentor said that they had all discussed it, and they agreed that I had done a lot of work over this past year and that it would be nice to let me be the representative.

My film crew mentors were extremely proud of me, because it was the first time that someone from film crew was chosen to be a representative. I will never forget the true honor I felt when I walked out onto the field to accept the team that wanted us as an alliance partner. I know that to many, this might not seem to be that big of a deal, but it was to me. It showed me what FIRST is really all about: hardwork, determination, and perseverance will all eventually pay off.

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

My moment isn't really during high school FIRST, though there were many extremely memorable ones. Honorable mention goes to finding out that Mr. Steve Florence was given the Woodie Flowers Award at Buckeye 2007 - I started crying when I heard it, Flo is my hero.

This moment is recent and very meaningful to me. IRI 2007:

I had taken a year off from FIRST, a year to step away from FIRST, to focus on school. I had hoped to attend a regional competition or two, maybe even volunteer in Atlanta, but other things (lack of cash, spring break adventure trip) had come up and my year off really became a full year off. I had signed up to volunteer at IRI 2007, an event one hour from my home town.

As I drove to the airport the Thursday night before, I was completely torn with emotion. I wondered if I had become disillusioned, if I would feel that spark that FIRST leaves in each and every one of us, or if I would spend the weekend feeling like an outsider.

As it turns out, FIRST has no expiration date, no time condition that says you must return in such and such time. People I had not seen in over a year (2 or 3 in some cases) pulled me into joyous hugs, new friends introduced themselves warmly, and I found myself putting pins on my shirt, losing my voice, and wondering how on earth I had survived a year without this. Thank you IRI 2007, thank you robotics, and thank you especially to all my dear friends for teaching me that FIRST evolves with each and every one of its members.

[techtiger1]

I would have to say winning Florida regional this year. I remember when my team was brand new and it was our first year going to this regional. We always dreamed of winning it. This year my first as a mentor after 3 years as a student on 1251, we finally won it as the 4th seeded allience captian. Since our high school is in Florida many of our alumni were there (all minus 2) and we all hung out after and I remember us after at dinner being in a state of unbelief saturday night that we won Fl regional. Just a great time and great experience.

[ShadowofaCat]

Originally Posted by GeeForce

Cheering with them for the Guerrillas was so much fun, I had completely forgotten about how upset I was earlier. However, the excitement was just beginning. When the announcer got about halfway through his speech about the Chairmans' winner, I could see our 4 Chairman's writers start getting all antsy and excited up in the stands; obviously he had said something from their presentation. Sure enough, we had won the Regional Chairman's award. Greatest feeling ever, as we celebrated and hugged and cried and everything afterwards.

I remember cheering with you guys

I think my most memorable FIRST experience was definitely the Elims in Atlanta. We didn't get as far as we hoped but as Grant said before, we had other teams cheering with us.
Cheering right behind the field with members of 1114, 469, 226 and 217 alike was surely amazing.

Even when we got out we were still there for each other. My FIRST friends are the ones I count on and theyre always there.

I think thats def. the most memorable moment in FIRST

[Libby K]

Although I'm only halfway through my time on 1923, I've been going to events since I was really little, and I'm sure I'll have many more memorable FIRST moments-- but this one sticks out from the recent past: Monty Madness 2007.

You can read the full story here, I'm not going to post it all again, but essentially, a team I've known since I was very young showed some fantastic gracious professionalism, and our team got the opportunity to play in the finals because of it. We didn't win, but I'm going to have to say it was just as good.

Oh, and our mentor won Woodie Flowers Jr at the same event. Having been the student that spoke to the judges and nominated him for it, I was so excited!

[Aren_Hill]

IRI 2006
semifinal 2-2
71,1625,910 vs 25,1114,33
if you weren't there you missed the greatest first match i've ever seen.
it still would've been the greatest to me if my team wasn't in it.

[Alivia]

Originally Posted by Gear

IRI 2006
semifinal 2-2
71,1625,910 vs 25,1114,33
if you weren't there you missed the greatest first match i've ever seen.
it still would've been the greatest to me if my team wasn't in it.

I remember that match, and it was truly amazing to watch! (Although the six-keepers that were scored during this year's IRI was also spectacular). Thanks for sharing!

[FunkyRatDemon]

UC Davis Mascot 06-07 Dance off (Im the robot)

[Bcahn836]

Houston Championships 2003. My first year on team 836, i was the human player, well my dad couldn't be there but was watching the web cast i call him in the morning let him know when our matches were and stuff, right before the match started i would wave my red hat to signal where i was on the field, and so started the kid in the red hat. 2003 what a year.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

I have had so many memorable experiences I cannot choose just one. Simply put, the times that really standout for me have been the Woodie Flowers presentations. From one of my first Championships when Bill Beatty received his award through Dan Green last year. Even better is knowing so many of these special people, Kyle Hughes, Ken Patton, Paul Copioli, Dave Kelso, Dave Verbrugge, Liz Calef, Mike Bastoni, and Rob Mainieri. But the one that stands out was being down front when Andy Baker was announced. The shock and awe on Andy's face in Houston was perfect Baker and the whole team was just jumping and screaming. Any time you get to talk with a WFA is momentous occassion.

[Laaba 80]

I have two:
1. Being the first team ever to get 3 perfect scores in FLL, and at the world festival.
2. Last day of build season programming night. We were trying to make the pre-set positions for our arm when one of our other programmers found a wire bundler. It is a braided nylon tube, that he thought was a chinese finger trap. He got stuck in it for about a half hour and we had some fun pulling him around by it. The whole time he was screaming "I have to take my ACT like this tomorrow!" We finally told him to run it under some water, and he got it off after screaming because the water was cold.

[cziggy343]

definentely my favorite moment was the 2002 ksc regional (i know, it's old school ). we lost the first match of the finals, then us (343) and 180 won the next to matches over 312 and 945. the last match was a very emotional, ever-changing match. it was the greatest match i have ever seen, and i have seen a lot.

[Tim Baird]

My most memorable moment from FIRST has to be, hands down, the last day of Nationals in 2000.

I was the driver for Gael Force, and I had just gotten accepted to WPI. Back then, to get the WPI scholarship, your team had to be voted on by all of the other teams. We had spent a lot of time on the past two days playing politics and talking to a lot of teams about my situation and asking if they'd please vote for us. I flat out could not afford to go to WPI. Even with loans it would have been insane.

Saturday morning rolls around and we're all sitting in the stands on Einstein. Woodie begins to announce the scholarship winners (there were only a few back then, so they actually took the time to say them all), and he finally gets to Worcester after a few minutes seeing how it's at the end of the alphabet. When he said "The WPI Design Innovation Scholarship goes to Team 126 Gael Force", I literally fell into my seat because I couldn't stand up anymore. The team members than poured on top of me as hugs, high fives, and back slaps were going all around.

I then borrowed a mentor's cell phone and called my parents to let them know I had won. They didn't believe me at first and thought that I was kidding, but as I tried to explain, the Voices of Liberty had started signing the Brazilian national anthem, so I hung up out of respect. I called them back in a few hours after a couple of matches to bring them up to speed.

Later that day, we battled our way to the top and found ourselves in the finals againgst 25 and their alliance. We won the first round, but then lost the latter two. While we may have lost, I was still the happiest person in the world having a National Finalist medal on my neck and knowing that my college tuition was taken care of now.

To this day, it's still probably the best day of my life.