In appreciation! [shout-outs]

FIRST General Forum
1

We all know that FIRST team members are awesome. I’ve been hanging out with all these really flippin’ fabulous people on my team and I wanted to write about how cool they are so…new thread, for telling about students on your team or others who’ve been an inspiration to you, or just people who kept you going during the insanity of build season. Quotes, stories, shout-outs to other teams, whatever. You know how it feels when you get an award at a regional and you run down to the field, past dozens of teams giving you high-fives? They know how much work you put in, they are excited for you…that is peer recognition and it is awesome :slight_smile:

[Here’s hoping there is no obvious existing thread that my search missed…]

Our team captain last year [also lead driver…we have a small team] is one of several girls in her family who’ve been on the team over the years. On graduation day, she was down in the robotics lab helping my dad [coach] and me with fundraising stuff. She spent part of her summer working on fundraising.

This year we have an almost entirely new team *. There is an exchange student from China who is so incredibly ENTHUSED about FIRST: it is an inspiration just to be around her. I was so worried about finding a student to take on my job, of public relations, fundraising, organization and so on…and it looks like she’s it :slight_smile:

Freshmen! They’re awesome!! Maybe we just have a really cool freshman class this year, but the two freshmen on the team are so fun. They’re just really…enthused. I am glad to know the team will be in good hands.

I have boundless respect for Oregon’s Regional Director. She works tirelessly for our teams: finding grants, speaking with Oregon officials, and so on…yet she is accessible by the lowliest team member by phone, and leads workshops at FIRST Fare, an event hosted by the awesome Team 1540.

The sense of community that FIRST engenders is almost clichéed by now, and for good reason. I am overwhelmed by the sheer awesome-factor of knowing that anyone at a FIRST event will help you out [team alumni: ‘Someone in a robotics shirt! They’re just a friend we haven’t met yet!’] My first year on the team, I was pulled in as scout right before the competition and I had no idea what was going on…at a local scrimmage, I was overawed and a little cowed. ‘Hello, can I talk to your…um…scouting leader?’ Team 2521 [rookies themselves] kindly brought over their scouting captain to the scared little rookie. Four years later, we still keep in touch with this team in another part of the state.

It’s not just high schoolers…I’m mentoring a couple of FIRST LEGO League teams * and they are amazing kids. There is one little 4th grader who’s the captain of his team, takes every responsibility seriously, really listens to me [that’s nice, believe me…]. His sister is pretty genius too: she took on the FLL research project, because she’s just obliging like that. I look at these kids and I think, these are the engineers of the future! Tomorrow’s leaders…tears up heroically

I could go on…but one last story. There is a local team, here in Oregon, that is an absolute powerhouse. Team 847 is visible [very…very YELLOW. And orange], outgoing, and hugely organized. They arrange all-team bonfires and off-season events. This year we lost our programmers to graduation, and an alumni of Team 847 [PHRED!] volunteered to help our team out over Christmas vacation, endeavoring to pound programming into our newbie heads. It’s amazing, and it’s what FIRST is about. Y’all are awesome.**

2

DO NOT FORGET YOUR PARENTS!

Parents are the ones who truly enable the FIRST experience, wither by providing rides, food, field building, supply gathering, etc, or just supporting their children, parents are a part that cannot be forgotten.

3

and teachers/mentors!

Speaking of parents, we just had our first parent meeting of the year (first since '08) and I just realize now what a untapped resource these wonderful people are.

4

School support is SO amazing. Today I was thinking what a great support network we have at school: my dad is both our coach/facilitator and a teacher at the school. When something needs to be arranged with the school, or an email certified, or a permission granted, he can take care of it.

Our school can’t afford to fund us very much, but the support is there, it is just untapped. Our admissions officer wants to do some sort of press release on our entire robotics program [FRC, FLL and all]…it is great publicity for them :wink: but it is just as good for us. I know a team that is in their fourth year and is only now getting a room at their school to meet in: our robotics lab is small, but exponentially better than not having a room! Thank you, Santiam Christian Schools.

And now, the biggest shout-out of all. Our team has had a very tough year financially, despite frantic and extensive work on the team’s part. Basically, we were looking at not being able to afford registration fees.
With less than three weeks to go and $1600 to raise, I cannot tell you how worried I was…we had tapped almost every resource in our town, it seemed.

Today a check arrived in the mail for $1600.

An almost-anonymous donor halfway across the country, who reads my frequent blog-posts about FIRST, wanted to contribute. I have never met this person, didn’t even know his real name…I guess I gave a good testimony about FIRST on my blog, hehe. It is mind-blowing for someone to support a cause they only know about from another person.

So, thank you: to someone who cared about us. Who cared about FIRST. Who cared about tomorrow’s engineers, corny as that sounds. THANK YOU.

5

And now, the biggest shout-out of all. Our team has had a very tough year financially, despite frantic and extensive work on the team’s part. Basically, we were looking at not being able to afford registration fees.
With less than three weeks to go and $1600 to raise, I cannot tell you how worried I was…we had tapped almost every resource in our town, it seemed.

Today a check arrived in the mail for $1600.

An almost-anonymous donor halfway across the country, who reads my frequent blog-posts about FIRST, wanted to contribute. I have never met this person, didn’t even know his real name…I guess I gave a good testimony about FIRST on my blog, hehe. It is mind-blowing for someone to support a cause they only know about from another person.

That is great news.

Parents are a great resource for teams. I the case of my team they are all we have. Considering up until this summer we had little to no school support and have built out of a garage since before I joined the team.

One of newest and most active mentors is one of the team members dads. He has helped our team restructure and develop a business format that has helped us to recover.

My team exists today in large thanks to my dad who has not only provided us with technical expertise but most importantly he pulled the program back from the brink by stepping in and filling the vacuum created when our mentor for 8 years had to pull back. He has devoted literally thousands of hours to my team over the past two years acting as the administrator, coach, mentor, and advisor. His efforts are what held my team together; and now it looks like my team is finally back on its feet again. He is one of the strongest believers in the goals of FIRST I have ever seen.

6

Encourage the parents to join NEMO (non-engineering mentor organization) http://www.firstnemo.org/finding.htm Lots of parents in the group.

Also check out the resources page. There is even a section devoted to ways parents can help.