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

[EricH]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

For nothing except participating. And presumably gaining something from that participation, or else why would we have FIRST at all? If we had some survey that said 80% of the kids wouldn't participate without a medal, we might be on to something. But I don't think that's the case. The award - whether it be medal, pin or certificate - is to recognize the work that it took to be a team member.

Gary, I wasn't specifically referring to participation in FIRST. Back when I started as a competitor, we didn't get none of these-here participation medals, and we didn't need 'em, and we liked it that way!