2010 Washington DC Regional

[Dmentor]

Many thanks to all the volunteers and teams for making the second DC regional another fantastic experience! I was once again impressed by the display of GP throughout the pits in getting robots built and on the field. I think collectively we represented FIRST well in the nation's capital! It was great to see our old friends and make new ones. Congratulations to Chantilly Robotics (612) on winning Chairman's award! You are both an inspiration and a role model for 2068 as well as good friends. Congratulations REX (1727), Wildcogs (3123), and Aces High (176); way to play Breakaway!

Thanks to the Phelps Robotics Panthers (2912) for inviting us to join your alliance and to the Blair Robot Project (449) for being great partners! We made a strong alliance that continued to improve throughout the elimination round. It is always nice making new friends and we hope to see you both at future competitions. For the second year in a row we faced off against the Technokats (45) in the elims, win or lose it is always a great honor to compete against Andy and team. Thanks to Delphi Elite (48), Chantilly Robotics (612), and the Lightning Bots (2010) for loaning our team batteries during the elims. We really appreciated the help and we wish you the best of luck in the rest of your season. Also, thanks to Josh from National Instruments for helping us negotiate a dead CRIO.

Finally thanks to Harry Reid (Senate Majority Leader) for taking time out of his schedule to drop by the competition and show his support. I hope he is able to deliver on his promise to have half the senate turn out next year.

[gblake]

Originally Posted by Dmentor

... I was once again impressed by the display of GP throughout the pits in getting robots built and on the field. I think collectively we represented FIRST well in the nation's capital! ...

To every student, mentor volunteer who was at DC - I had the privilege of escorting a few important guests and of staying in touch with another one - If I can presume to read their minds a bit, all left with the realization that they had just been someplace very unusual, and that they had seen a program worth their attention and investment, and worth expanding as fast as possible.

As I walked through pits or sat and chatted with them I was never at a loss for words because I have so many great stories to tell about years gone by and about events as fresh as Thursday. When I did have the presence of mind to be quiet and just let the guests sit and soak in the experience, you guys were making things happen just as they should.

Congratulate yourselves for doing exactly what will carry you and FIRST successfully into the next 20 years.

Blake
PS: After pausing to congratulate yourselves - Go back to having "The hardest fun you will ever have". The season isn't over yet and we aren't finished changing the culture yet - There is plenty more fun ahead.

[Rich Kressly]

Blake,
It was great seeing you, too. You always do a fabulous job ensuring important guests at events "get it" and this year was certainly no exception.

All,
It was a very memorable event because if the people, as always. So many teams and people helping out those in need of supplies, tools, expertise. With the weather the way it was this year in the DC area, there were more than 20 teams not fully inspected at the close of Thursday despite furious efforts by volunteers and teams. Before Friday was out though, ALL teams had completed inspection and had made it to the field of play - including one team that was nearly totally, entire rebuilt on Friday.

In addition to the robots, of course there are all those teams, mentors, and students changing their communities and the culture for the better who are willing share so we all grow.

Personally, I need to thank all involved with 1712's efforts this weekend. Mentors Paul Gehman and Bob Bellini, staff member Kim Arleth and Sean Lavery from Drexel/NavSea for all you do and have done ... but especially to Delia, Dena, Ana, Murph, Dan, Stan, Jonah, Kris, Alex, Neil, Rachel, and Rowan - you 12 we exemplary all weekend - with each other and others. You make it worthwhile to spend the time on this endeavor and I'm looking forward to the full team being at Philly.

As usual, I'm tired and fulfilled.

[Travis Hoffman]

One of the benefits of attending a regional in Washington, DC is the opportunity to meet with your Congressman at the U.S. Capitol.

Here's a portion of our visit with U.S. Representative Tim Ryan (D-17) at the start of our capitol tour. I've also attached a picture of the team with Mr. Ryan on the Capitol steps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSE6cAhAQ8o

[mcbean]

team 2377 had a lot of fun. almost all of our matches (missing match #1) are up on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/view_play_lis...65B171A32F0A54

we got the arm fixed (hopefully) so it should now be reliable, and will fix our wheel for the baltimore competition this week!