pic: The President meets MOE

[Caio]

thats really amazing.. i love the faces Bush is making in about 2 of those pictures though.

And Joe is right, that doesn't look like he's excited xD

Congrats MOE on just a wonderful opportunity! having the president come to championships would most definetly create a very large influx of guests at the competition. More awareness for FIRST! haha

[Andy Baker]

This is absolutely amazing. Way to go, all who made this happen.

The last time that a FIRST team went to the White House was in 1997, I think. Someone correct me if that is wrong. Back then it was a yearly trip. Now, that tradition will pick back up.

This is yet another reason that the Chairman's Award is the highest of them all.

Andy B.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by 114ManualLabor

Wow. That's really awesome! I'm assuming that the Secret Service went nuts and inspected the bot before hand, and had someone posted right behind the driver at all times?

That's really cool!

Nope... the terror level was lowered to MOE green for this event.


ahaha I am hilarious.

[Gabe]

Dear Mr. President:

You might have met some good friends of ours, MOE of FIRST Robotics. See, these people won the most prestigious award for our competition, the National Chairman's Award. It is given to the best team there is, in character and spirit, as well as smarts.

You also might have met a little guy dressed in a blue, Dean Kamen. He's the man that started this competition back in 1992, and fifteen years later is grown a lot. I mean "1,300+ schools" kind of a lot. He's a really smart guy, and really wants his idea to grow even more. All it takes is $5,000 per high school and the program will pay for itself in a year.

How? Well, after the one year the program can guarantee the inspiration of minimum 1 student who will go into science and technology. This 1 student will then go on to input a minimum of $5,000 during his career into the economy, guaranteed.

We need you help, Mr. President, to continue to bring up teams like MOE.

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Joe Matt

It doesn't look like an expression of excitement to me...

You should have seen his face when Moe broke out with their "Moe Cheer"!

And how much would you pay for a picture of The President doing the "Joe Matt" ?!!! (just wait )

-dave

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by dlavery

And how much would you pay for a picture of The President doing the "Joe Matt" ?!!! (just wait )

Now that will be very hard to beat; unless we can find Chuck Norris.

[Brian J. R.]

The expresion on the President's face from the picture from Getty Images is one of "that chandelier costs about as much as 5 of thoes robots.......and you missed it by an inch................."

Robot=$5,000-$10,000
Booking Regionals, Championships, Travel Expences, and other expences=$30,000-$40,000
The chance to scare the living daylights out of the President and the secret service at once=Priceless

[Dan Richardson]

wow simply amazing! Way to go moe!

[dubious elise]

To MOE - Congratulations! I know that you portrayed the spirit of the FIRST community well =)

To Dave - You are speaking as if you were present at this event. I am curious to know if you made any comments regarding the pronunciation of the word "nuclear"

[santosh]

Wow, congrats to all the teams that went.
I can hardly think of any better ambassador of FIRST that team 365. Simply amazing.
congrats once again.

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Brian J. R.

The expresion on the President's face from the picture from Getty Images is one of "that chandelier costs about as much as 5 of thoes robots.......and you missed it by an inch................."

Robot=$5,000-$10,000
Booking Regionals, Championships, Travel Expences, and other expences=$30,000-$40,000
The chance to scare the living daylights out of the President and the secret service at once=Priceless

More like "as much as 100 of those robots..." but who is counting?

[Barry Bonzack]

A big congrats to MOE. To everyone behind the scenes that helped make this happen, Thank you. Thank you from the entire FIRST community, this is amazing press and recognition of the highest caliber. This will be a memory like no other for all of those in the White House today.

[ZachKahn]

Congratz 365!!! You've achieved one of my dreams. There are some really great pictures. Let's get the President to Nationals before his term is over.

[skimoose]

Originally Posted by Joe Matt

It doesn't look like an expression of excitement to me...

Alright, who goosed the president?

[Carol]

I'll get some more pictures up later today. Thanks to 768 and 116 for "hosting" the reception at the Cannon Office Bldg. (attached to the Capital where a lot of Congress have their offices) after the White House visit. And thanks to 768 for the special buttons they made for us! Unfortunately no congressperson showed up, although many sent staffers. I was told that they are rarely in DC on Mondays. And thanks to Dave Lavery for posting the pics so quickly!

Now, the White House. It was very exciting. If you picture the standard view of the WH with the portico and pillars in front, we were in the room just inside the balcony on the second floor. MOE was set up for a demo there, with FLL set up in the East Room (with the famous portrait of George Washington) and FVC in the room on the West side, but I'm not sure what that is called. We had a lot of time to wander the whole area including the Green room and Red room and to look at all the art work. Portraits of most of the presidents are there, including the well known portrait of JFK (with his arms crossed an looking down) and the bust of Lincoln.

They did put down carpeting over the marble floor for the robot, and yes, we did almost hit the very expensive crystal chandelier. First Bush talked to Dean, Woodie, Dave L, Paul Abele, and some other FIRST people. Then he came out where we had been standing for at least 20 minutes, posed on the stair case (with a guard behind us to keep anyone from wandering upstairs). He greeted us, said he had a nice talk with Dean about his latest invention, the water purifier, and mentioned how he fell off a Segway. They they posed with us and Dean said we had a cheer for him (which startled him quite a bit!). Our Chairman's team gave a very short presentation in which he listened graciously, but only showed interest when they mentioned our literacy program. Our drive team then demo'ed the robot, after which Bush took over the controls. While our driver drove the robot Bush controlled the gripper and picked up a ring and hung it. he then left to see the FLL team.

There was a horde of photographers but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take video. Security as you can imagine was extremely tight. The only items allowed in were car keys, wallet, and cameras. No purses, lipsticks, combs, or anything pointed such as pencils. And if can look closely you can see we are all wearing our medals which of course set off the metal detectors.

It was an exciting day but tiring day - we didn't get back until around 11. I'm back at work but as you can see haven't done much yet, so I'll end it here.