How did you thank your engineers/mentors/sponsors this year?

[Bharat Nain]

Every year engineers, mentors and sponsors make it possible for a team to get thru a year of inspiration, fun, stress, excitement, education and much more. They take up responsibilities we dont want to, the pain, the bitter stuff, the hard stuff, and they do it all for us, the students, expanding the FIRST community, making this world a better place to live in. Not all of them are UFH or Woodie Flowers winners to be well known all over FIRST, but I am sure most of them have done quite a bit to influence your team and the FIRST community.

I really don't know what really motivates them to stay on a team for a long time. It takes a lot of energy, dedication, time, and strong ethics to keep a team going in good shape, and I don't think they get enough recognition for all that they have done.

Therefore, Now that the year has come to an end, I would like you all to take this opportunity and time to name them and also write about how did you thank them this year, and also write a little bit about them if you like.

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As for Team 25:
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We bought our mentor Wayne Cokeley, a glass diamond with his face carved into it using laser.

For our engineers/tradesmen, we made a huge mosaic of the Bristol myers guys using all the pictures our team has taken.

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Engineers/Tradesment from Bristol-Myers Squibb and Company: We really dont have engineers, they are all tradesment.

Kevin Durham: The supervisor of the division(robot building). He is simply awesome, I can't say much.
Mike Lubniewski: What can I say about him, he is the JVN and the Andy Baker of Team 25. He'd stay about nights trying to solve any technical problem we have, if needed.
Walter Suchowiecki: He is a little strong on us, but we have learnt an awful lot about team work from him.
John Dusko, Charlie Smaltino, Tony Kukulski: All of these three men have been there for us whenever needed. Always made the right decision, always by our side, I dont know how to describe them.

Alumni:
Shaun McNulty: Our drive team coach. More than the drive team coach. He has always known the right time to step down, the right time to say stuff. His dedication to the team has been terrific.
Mario Azar: One of my closest alumni buddies. Being the key man in every emergency, his works are appreciated. Inspite of his work load and other stuff to take care of, he has always been ready to help us out, talk to the kids, confront, he is incredible.
Mike Schroeder aka Big Mike: Hey buddy, oh man, I love this guy. He has done quite a bit for the time, you all can guess his value, most of you know him. Thanks for being there for us.
Kristina Evanouskas aka Kiwi_queen: Oh man, the girl with the biggest smile in 500 miles radius. She leads our volcano crew. With this years team problems and all sort of problems, she has definately done a good job mantaining the volcano crew. Thanks Kristina

OK and here is the person I want to thank most:

Wayne Cokeley aka WayneC.: I can't say enough about him, I really cant. He'd take the blow of a baseball bat in his stomach and still stand up and say "Hey monster, I am back". Health challenges, harsh team problems, rude students, no school support, nobodys support at times, he has gone thru all of it, and still stood up because in the end he has always been right.I am going to let other team members talk about him. For now, Thank you Cokeley for all that you have done.

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So C'mon, name the JVNs, Andy Baker, Paul Copioli, Dave Kelso and others of your team.

-Bharat Nain