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

Competition Thanks and/or Congrats
1

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.

As for Team 25:

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.

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 :smiley:

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.

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

-Bharat Nain

2

As for team 433, we made an overview video of this past year as a thank you to our primary sponsor, McNeil. And the seniors who just graduated wanted to thank our mentors and engineers who we became very attached to so we had a thank you party at one of our mentors houses. We also had a pool party for the whole team and the underclassmen suprised the seniors with little personalized toolboxes and hand-made picture frames. It was quite a suprise and very thoughful.

3

My team had an awards thing out at Andy Baker’s house a few weeks after nationals. The students gave the engineers awards and the engineers gave kids awards. We had some funny awards along with the more serious awards. We could have had more awards to give the mentors though…but we will make it better next year. :smiley:

-kyle

4

I feel lame.

1293 went into mothballs about eight hours after Palmetto ended. So we did nothing.

So I guess I’ll shout it from the rooftops now…

Rick Suarez, Phil Rose, PBR Automotive, and Dutch Fork High School are the bestest folks I know.

5

This truly great!! The opportunity I needed to praise my mentors! :slight_smile:

As far as the entire team goes … we haven’t officially recognized ALL of our mentors … just a few with a framed paper with most of our team’s members signatures (and a thought) on it! In my opinion not the best since the idea to do so came from two of our mentors and not really from the team.

Personally, however, in the way back from the Championships I bought a several ‘Thank You’ cards and wrote a personal tought on it and gave it to our mentors and to all of our team’s members. This was still not the best … but at least it was something! So this is the best opportunity to give them ALL the credit they soo much deserve!

Teacher Mentors:
Michael Osterman (Lead Teacher, Magnet Program) - I am in so many different level in debt to this man! He is truly remarkable. He was the one that accepted Stephen Kowski (wonderful) idea of starting a robotics team in our school! He has helped with a lot of the planning, supervising, dealing with the administration! He drove to both the Peachtree regional and the Champioship in his car and carried with him batteries, tools, everything we couldn’t cary on the plane (regional) and everything we left behind for the championships! He has always involved the kids while building the robot … and he never has stopped cheering us on!! I couldn’t picture our team without him!
Jason Broughton (Science Dept. Chair) - Wow, he is truly one of the most essential people to our team when we have gone to the competitions. Poor thing almost maxed his credit card on us. He has found our accomodations, all of our paperwork, our transport, our dinner (although I’m seriously not happy about Golden Corral), everything … :slight_smile: He was in school during build season everyday until un-godly hours. He didn’t even go home the entire night that the robot was supposed to be shipped out … no sleep … no rest … ok you get the idea! I can’t say enough about him, he’s truly great!!
William Vasden (Science Dept. Physics) - Our create builder and soo much more!! He has always kept our team in check … our disciplinary mentor!! Make sure that we represent our team to the fullest with ‘Gracious Profesionalism’. He was also responsible for getting us to the Peachtree Regional and to the Championship!
Bobby Rooks (Technology Dept. Digital Electronics) - ‘Mr. Chips’ … the man of the mechanics … thanks to him and he’s shop we were able to have our gears weighed down. He’s one of my favorite teachers and mentors in the entire school!! He is a strategist master-mind … and he is just too cool for words. His humor is awsome and well I just know that next year … our team is going to owe a lot to him!!
Lisa Culberson (Science Dept. Chemistry) - The only ‘official’ girl mentor in the team! She was often there to keep an eye on us during build season! She wasn’t able to go with us to the competitions but I’m sure that next year she won’t miss out on anything!
Myles Vance (Technology Dept. CIM & IED) - As we speak … Mr. Vance, Mr. Vasden, Stephen Kowski, and Roger Riquelme are coming up with a robotics course for our school! He is an incredible engineer and engineering teacher and I can’t wait to have him be a part of our team fully next year!!

**College Mentors: **
Stephen Kowski - The guy responsible for everything! He came to Mr. Osterman with the idea of starting a FIRST Robotics Team in our school and well truly I couldn’t be more thankful to him for that or for everything that he has done for our team! He was the one mainly responsible for teaching our kids everything about ‘building a robot’. He has contributed to our team in sooo many ways … that it would have been impossible to have gotten as far as we have without him! I greatly appreciate him and respect him … just to be clear :wink: !
Roger Riquelme - He was responsible for our Drive Train, our incredible drive train, which is one of the resons why we got the XEROX Creativity Award in the Peachtree Regional!! He is someone that ALL of the kids look up to and are glad to have around! I have learned a great deal from him and I just love having him around! He’s truly great!

**The Engineer: **
Chuck - THE MAN!!! Chuck … responsible for our pneumatic arm (the other reason why we got the XEROX Creativity Award)! He is also the man responsible for coming up with the best possible solutions whenever our robot encountered a technical problems at regionals and the Campionships! I only hope that he’ll still be with us next year … we really need him!! :smiley:

So this is it for the most part and although we weren’t really able to recognize their work for our team properly this year … next year is a completely different story! I already have an idea in mind of what i’m going to do to thank them for next year!! :wink:

6

Im just gonna say some more things from 25

Kevin Durham: Although i personally havent had much time with him, hes been a great help always and has always been there for us.
Mike Lubniewski: This guy is insane. The stories we have heard from the other engineers are insane. He has called them at the oddest hours asking them if he should do this or that, then he calls back with a decision, then a correction and so on. He’s just been constantly involved through out the whole year. And is always open to suggestions and helps everyone out.
Walter Suchowiecki: His words to me, got me incredibly involved. When no one else would, he gave us respect and trust. He always knows what to say to make you feel better and to boost confidence. And he is always right when he makes a decision.
John Dusko, Charlie Smaltino, Tony Kukulski: Yet again, they have always helped out, talked to us, got our ideas, and just dedicated to getting us out there every round. and not just us, our friends and even stranger teams.
Alumni:
Shaun McNulty: Drive team coach. Has always been an influence, kept our heads on straight and knows when to talk and when not to. Helped me with strategy on the fly.
Mario Azar: Kind of the darkhorse for this. But hes kept us together in times of need. Although crazy at times, he does whats right.
Mike Schroeder aka Big Mike: This guy-THIS GUY-o man. I dont know where to start. The stuff he has put up with from us and from others really shows his love for team 25 and FIRST. Has always been a help, wether recruiting people for BE or just dragging around the bot.
Kristina Evanouskas aka Kiwi_queen: Umm-i dont know lol-id have to say insane with happiness, just pushes the team to cheer, even when it looks doubtful.

Wayne Cokeley-I really dont know what to say either. The stuff he has done for the team has been great. He’s helped me discover that i want to go into engineering, he’s just had brilliant ideas about everything. Although he isnt a true engineer genius, he will always put out his thoughts and given all possible options to you. The stuff he puts up with aswell, just wow. its really great.

7

we thanks them all the time the mentors and engineers and sponsors too–

for our sponsors we give them certificates at the end of the year and a photo of the team

with our mentors we give them items of appreciation at our end of the season party–and always a constant THANK YOU!!!

THANK YOU TO ALL MENTORS IN FIRST!!! AND SPONSORS!!! YOU GUYS TOTALLY ROCK!!!

8

Okay, I never got to finish my response yesterday, so here we go.
There was this little thing where any volunteer who worked with a club/organization and volunteered for over 1000 hours or something got an award from the President. Well, our team took all the engineers’ and mentors’ names that met the requirements, and sent them on to the White House (I think?). So after a couple weeks, we got the letters from the President and I think they got a medal or something or whatnot…the whole thing wasn’t fully explained to me. Then we gave them a framed photo of our team picture with a note saying Thanks.
I really enjoyed working with all the engineers and mentors. You all were amazing!
My thanks and recognition goes to:
Mr. Mason
Miss Jenny
Mrs. Levin
Mrs. Streb
Mr. Mike Wade (engineer)
Mr. Tom Graef
Mr. Bill (last name I can’t remember)
Mr. Tom Greer (who will be leaving us from Lockheed…we’ll miss you!)
Mrs. Mina Delkhoon
All of you, thank you so much for all the hard work you’ve put in to help us. Honestly, we would be nowhere without your guidance and dedication. We hope that you will come back and help us each year. I miss ya already! I can’t wait until next build season so we can all work together and have the fun we always do. A million thank you’s!
If I missed anyone else…please tell me! And I apologize.
–d0ri

9

Just to clarify a bit…
First, thanks to Cheryl Miller, mentor on Team 294 for informing the CD community about these awards.

www.presidentialserviceawards.gov
You document volunteer hours and depending on level, you get a certificate for the individual or the team. I decided to get one certificate for the team (instead of individual ones), but then ordered pins for the mentors.

It’s a small gesture of thanks.

If your team does not keep rough track of mentor volunteer hours now, start doing it. These numbers will come in handy for all sorts of things.

10

Well at WildStang we have a big party at the end of the year at Motorola in the meuseum.
We have food and a nice presentation of the general “everybody did so great this yea… we will miss all of the seniors…etc” and then a team of 4 or 5 students get up and start to hand out fun awards… some of which were “most likely to win a staring contest with a rock… most random comments award” and stuff like that. Then at a picnic we recently had TiffanyG and I busted out a few awards for the engineers and students basically thanking them for entertaining us for 6,7,8 well more like 12 months out of the year.
We also put out an amazing DVD at the end of the year with all of the mentors and students in it.

11

The engineers do a lot on your team!!! We thank them in many ways. Even if it is giving them the stupid and funny awards! I know how much work all of our engineers put in! So we thank them by doing our work and actually planning fun things like the pinic just so we can all have some fun together. This fun doesnt include our robot! To all the WildStang engineers that read this site, THANKS A BUNCH! :slight_smile:

12

I see how everyone says what they do, but can you please name them? I think they should get more recognition personally, and write about them if you think they really do some work.

How about… one day… someone from CD goes…

“Oh Hi John, You’re the Team ***'s enginner right, I heard about you on ChiefDelphi… I must say that your team really appreciate you for all that you’ve done”

Just think how good they would feel… and even motivate them to do more… so please take the time to name all the deservant people on your team. I think thats the purpose of this thread. Another purpose could also be that teams could take ideas for gifting mentors from here:)

13

Andy Brockway and David Lindsay, our 2 main mentors, have been with us since the very beginning. They have been sooo generous to give up their time to teach and lead us. They teach us by letting us make mistakes…that way we will never make the same ones again.

David Lindsay (Coach), is an HVRHS Science teacher. He is truly wonderful. He founded our team after learning about robotics at a conference. He sought help from the Aztechs (team 157) who were very generous to us in our first year and donated some parts. Now his primary role is to coach us, do paperwork, organize, and set team goals (as well as fall asleep in the oddest places during our competitions.) He also is responsible for driving the team (and getting us lost)to and from our competitions, including to Atlanta (this guy says that next year we will get to Atlanta via San Diego) :ahh: Because of his dedication , we gave him the first annual “David Lindsay Award” for his years of leadership and dedication he has given to our team.
Andy Brockway (mentor and chief strategist) is a mechanical engineer who works for BD (Becton Dickenson). His philosophy has always been to recognize and teach the importance of good attitude, to make the best of any and all failure that you may encounter, and to teach us by not always giving us the answers right away. I am always amazed at his talent for leading us as a group, whether it is brainstorming sessions or a crisis in the pit. He has taught us not to rush into the design process…rather we should figure out our strategy and what we want to do first. During build season, if he knows you are about to make a mistake, he will not tell you about it (unless it is really serious) so that you can find out about it yourself and truly understand the problem. This happened to me several times this year, and even though it was not always the most fun way to learn, it was certainly the most effective. I know that I will not do the same things again (hopefully). He also teaches us the importance of good planning. He will not let us rush into building a part without drawing it out and getting every dimension first…even if we “know” exactly how we are going to build it. This is because often you do not take certain things into account and other people will understand your ideas better if you can draw them out. This is also the best way to fabricate something. He taught us that if you know exactly how you will make a part by drawing it out, you will have less room to make machining mistakes. Andy is a great thinker as well as an engineer…he understands the meaning of gracious professionalism and strives to teach us the meaning of this value. He teaches us to understand the importance of diplomacy toward other teams, and teaches us that FIRST is foremostly about learning, inspiration, and teamwork, and about competition last. It is not battlebots.

In addition to our two main advisors, Dave and Andy, we have countless other volunteers and mentor on our team…Dave V. who helps us with fabrication (and paint jobs) and who is a skilled tradesman, “Big” Pat R. who is a carpenter and helps us build the playing field, as well as videotape our matches, “Doc”, chemistry teacher who tye-dyes our team shirts,plus all of the many parents and other volunteers who bring in food. I also can’t forget to mention all of the other supportive staff members at our school who give us moral support, as well as make sure we get money from the school budget, especially our wonderful principal who lent us her beach home in New Jersey for the J&J regional.

Thanks to all who made this year, our best year yet, possible!!! :slight_smile:

14

We always have a party after nationals to thank everyone and celebrate the end of the season. This year the students of the team went shopping and bought presents for all the mentors. I wasn’t there, but the gifts that were picked out fit the people extremely well. I’d like to take the time to thank them here, too.

Gail Alpert- The driving force behind our team. Even after Gail’s kids graduated she’s been there everyday. She helps organize us everything, and runs the team. She may not be an engineer, but she has tons of experience from past competitions and is always ready to sit and help us with our problems in design, build, or strategy! (Usually at the sacrifice of all sleep.) So this year we got her an embroidered blanket, in addition to a poster board with a person thank you from each person on the team.

Art Ostrowski- Our main engineer. He’s always there to help us work through design and build. We could never thank him enough for all the hours he puts in. So many in fact, that he doesn’t sleep either. So, one of the gifts we got him was a pillow that a student drew “469” with bananas, gorrillas, and students on. He also had a poster board with personal thank yous.

Ed Hockman- Our beloved machinist! Of course, he also has a poster board with thanks from the team. In addition we got him a lighter, and a stuffed dog. All to thank him for more countless hours of welding and helping us assemble our robot!

Ron Thuringer- Our electrical mentor. Always willing and able to help us with the board! :slight_smile: We got him a new soldering iron… can never have too many of those! We also printed out a book of the teams thank yous since he couldn’t make the party.

Allen Richardson- A new mentor for us, and a programmer. Thank you for all your help, Allen!

George Tong- A 469 Alumni, who was there literally as much as any student. More than most. He was always willing to help us learn how to use a machine, or desmonstrate a better way to make a part. We got him a hello-kitty toaster for his dorm next year. Thanks George!!

Dan Kimura- Another 469 Alum who is always there to aid with strategy, programming, and just being all-around helpful. A great and funny guy, too. More hello-kitty merchandise!

Ludwig Stump- The father of one of our drivers and a dedicated engineer! We’ll miss him next year, because he moved back to Germany. (Along with our driver…grrr.) But hey, maybe now we’ll see “FIRST Deuschland”!

Also, many parents of students were always driving people back and forth to meetings (drives of up to an hour!), helping out to supervise, and just being generally useful! This never could have happened without their support!

THANK YOU TO ALL OUR MENTORS AND DEDICATED PARENTS!!!

15

OK you know what? I am ashamed of knowing some of you people. You have a great team, lead by great mentors, so write about them here. It’s about that we spread their name a little bit. I don’t mean to offend anyone, but FIRST is about motivation and inspiration, and we should motivate and inspire our mentors as they do to us. UFH has done a great job accomplishing some of this, but I wanted this thread to be so that if you nominated someone and they still haven’t been given the honor of being a UFH yet, at least we can get to them here. So please please please use Chief Delphi and publicize them a little bit(unless its against their wish).

16

I thanked the tradesmen on our team the same way i do ever year with a handshake and a “thanks for helping us guys”,
In my opinion, i wouldnt want gifts or praise from people about my help to a robotics team, if i were an engineer/mentor on a team all i would want is a thank you, to me that would make all my hard work and efforts worth while and it would prove to me that i could acctually be making a difference in the students lives