From Bill's Blog: Merits of replacing bronze participation medals

[Nick Lawrence]

I like the idea of the pins, but I find sometimes the bronze medals rather unnecessary to be given out to every student that goes through FRC. I personally have not collected my bronze medals this year, they've gone to other teammates. You won't find one on my medal rack at home, either. I find them rather taunting, really, as a driver. To me, it says "Hey, thanks for playing, you can have something that thousands of other FIRSTers get too." Pins would be much lower cost, and they would look kind of cool. Sure, the idea is the same, and I probably would only collect one of them a year, to keep track of games I've played. After all, FLL gives out pins to every student that participates in a regional competition.

Personally, I think FIRST could pull this off, and save tons of money. Maybe enough in shipping costs to bring back larger trophies.

-Nick