It seems like a lot of FIRST alumni have reached the age where they’re starting their own families. I’m seeing more and more FIRST Babies at events, and I am LOVING it.
As a sucker for robots and (other people’s) babies, I’d love for people to use this thread and post pictures of their adorable second generation FIRST children rocking out at FIRST events.
I have heard that team 88 (TJ^2) actually has a full-on 2nd generation FIRSTer. A member of the founding TJ^2 team had a child and that child is now high-school aged and is participating on TJ^2.
That is incredible!
-Brando
Attached is a picture of my daughter Zoey Elizabeth Zende (2yrs Old) she was born January 19th 2012 and has been attending F.I.R.S.T. events all her life. I started freshman year in high school with FRC team 281 from 1999-2000. I then moved on to FRC team 507 from 2001-2003. In 2004 my family and others started FRC team 1319 and I have been with them ever since.
I very much look forward to the day when Zoey can participate in FLL, FTC and eventually FRC.
Eric (Angry Eric) & Kim Eckhardt are both experienced FIRST mentors and I believe alumni. They brought their adorable little baby daughter to FLR.
She was even sporting a “red mohawk” hat.
Just awesome.
Argos FRC Team 1756 has quite a few young fans. They were all decked out in “game day” bibs and team gear at Central Illinois. Not sure if they are legacy FIRSTers, but they are cute!
I guess im a gen 0 FIRST baby as I have attended 1+ Frc regional or championship since 2002. Now im a senior with 13 different frc games and 17 events attended.
My wife and I brought our daughter Caitlyn to her first FIRST event (Lenape MAR District event). She’s not quite 6 months old yet but had a good time experiencing all the things going on the competition. My wife is the FIRST alum and we are both mentors for 1640. Here she is sporting her “safety glasses” (best we could do for an infant).
This - saw them at TVR, so cute! And the hat was just off the cute meter! 
Unfortunately FIRST wasn’t an option in my high school back in the days of yore, but I’m pretty sure Kim has more than enough FIRST experience for both of us 
Here are the facts about our fully autonomous mini-bot:
While we overran the build season by more than a few weeks, all our I/O is up and functioning and we’re making great progress on control of our manipulators and drivetrain. Still need to improve on feedback to the drivers, and there is a pesky software bug that causes pretty bad control system crashes toward the end of the day. While OPR is low, DPR is through the roof due to routinely tripping the opposing robot’s cuteness breakers.
While a rookie team in years, there is serious dedication already behind this robot. Out of the 7 weeks since ship day, the robot has been at 4 regionals or districts already, and still has 2 more to go! How many rookies have you met that are attending 6 weeks of competitions? The team has also asked the judges not to be considered for the Rookie All Star award at each competition, as the team is really a RINO (Rookie In Name Only) and felt that other teams deserve the chance to compete for RAS at Champs this year. GP is alive and well in the next generation of FIRSTers!
During alliance selections, this robot is a solid 2nd round pick that will compliment any offensive pair! Keep an eye out for this team during the New England Pine Tree District and NE District Championships this year and let’s bring home a banner!
On the downside, after every few matches we let the “magic smoke” out. Believe me, a toasted Victor is both faster to replace AND smells better :rolleyes:
PS Thanks to Brett Brimhall from FIRST Team 20 The Rocketeers for this awesome photo!
Not alumni exactly… but so far two mentors from our team have had kids while on the team! With the first, she was very pregnant during competition (the kid was due right around champs), and we got a ton of “who’s the pregnant girl on your team?” questions… very awkward. The second had the baby right before our first competition this year, and brought it to meet the team at our second competition this past weekend. Again, questions of “Who’s the girl with the newborn on your team?”… very awkward. But I guess that’s what you get when you have two female mentors who both look young enough to be team members!
Thats great. I posted back in 2011 asking if there was any second generation FIRSTers. This is the first that I have heard of. Are there any others?
Mr. Mike
Here’s a few pictures of my son Bennett from this past weekend at Waterford. He started his FIRST career in 2012, being 4 months old and coming to build with me 1-2 days a week. Now as a 2 1/2 year old, he’s here 3 days a week. He loves watching the robots and his “robot friends.”
My favorite part about having a kid while being on a FIRST team is how much my students, mentors, and parents embrace him as a team member, he’s the team toddler! I’m excited because next season he’s going to have a new robot friend since another mentor is having his first-FIRST kid!
Here is a picture of my son, Benjamin. This picture is from Boilermaker and was actually taken by Carolyn (OP). He’s been a regular at robotic events in Indiana since he’s been born last July (he’s only missed Crossroads so far) and I’m sure he will continue to be a regular in the future.
I had similar problems with my two little mini-bots. And just like a good FIRST robot, every time you fix a problem, some new software bug manifests itself.
But as you can imagine, its all worth it in the end.
Thanks for noticing! Although I’m the only mentor to have a kid old enough to participate this year, we have 14 other daughters ranging from infants to 6 years old and 2 boys. They are regularly at our team meetings. I half joke about spawning an all girls team in the future.
Sometimes they are insightful beyond their years. My personal favorite quote from my, then 4 year old, daughter is, “if it works, who cares?” She told that to me and four mentors that were discussing how terrible something looked after hours 
Wyatt is one of four thoroughbot babies (thoroughbabies?). Here he is checking to make sure the field is within spec thursday night. He had to be sure everything was +/- 1".
This post really makes me smile:)
keep it up.
Hurray for the ref-baby!
This is going to really quickly become one of my favorite threads. One, I love cute babies, and Two… how cool is it that the FIRST community has grown this much over time?! I think these are some incredible stories. Keep ‘em comin’.
I also think it bears mentioning that you’re the original FIRST baby
