The EMT table became a button trading post–just about everybody who had buttons had them available on the table. A rather interesting use of a table that seemed to see little use.’
(Photo: Melanie Griffin)
The EMT table became a button trading post–just about everybody who had buttons had them available on the table. A rather interesting use of a table that seemed to see little use.’
Hmmmm… (make note to self for the NYC Regional)
Good Idea, a Button Trading Post (table).
Take one, leave one!
I think it’s great when the EMT table gets little or no use at an event. Glad they found something to do to keep themselves occupied.
The EMT’s at Chesapeake were fantastic. We were also fortunate that the number of times they were needed for emergencies can be counted on one hand. A miracle considering the size of this event.
Thanks for the photo Billfred!
Actually, to give credit where credit is due, the photo was taken by my girlfriend (and unofficially official team photographer) Melanie Griffin. I just supplied the camera. 
One lesson we learned this time around with buttons: If you make three different button designs, people will want three different buttons. (For anyone wondering, there was the maroon-and-gold Capital Robotics button that matched the fronts of our shirts, the similarly-colored “The Standard Is Excellence” button that matched the backs of our shirts, and a relative few with the old star team logo. Oh, how I love being able to fiddle with vector art…
The other lesson we learned was to hide the button box–if we had left it at the edge of our pit as we did on Thursday, we would not have had any left come Saturday!
I recall talking to one of the EMT’s at SVR last year… He was telling me how normally he’s on standby duty for concerts, so he gets to deal with all the people getting hurt in the mosh pits, stepped on, and so on. He was quite amazed at how safe we all were, and was very proud of us for it. I recall him saying how the largest thing he had to deal with all day was a small laceration.
About an hour later one of my team members fell off some stairs, and FUBAR’d his ankle… he was in a wheelchair the rest of the day. 
Hurray for the Safety Advisors, some of the hardest working Ambassadors in FIRST!
We did have an ankle injury due to the very spontaneous dance off (complete with backflips) while waiting for opening ceremonies on Sat. Lots of leeway granted there 
As a professional EMT/ Fire Fighter I have worked standby for many events, concerts, every type of sports event and even a chess tournament. I have noticed at the FIRST events I have worked as an EMT and also as a student or volunteer at the competition FIRST is by far one of the safest events I have ever been to. With all the potential for injuries with the tools, machines and large amounts of people walking everywhere it would make sense to see some injures, but that is not the case at most events. I think that says a lot about the students and mentors from the teams learning the proper use of tools and how to act safe while at an event. Sure there are still lacerations and injuries related to falls but that is nothing compared to some of the events that I have been to with the same large groups of students.
I hope the button collecting tables will be the norm at most regionals so the EMT’s can have some interaction, It gets really boring sometimes just sitting there having no idea whats going on.
Good luck to everyone
Oh awesome! Im going to try and the EMTs at Palmetto to do this. Im sure they would love it.
Everytime I see the name of this thread…it makes me think of our partners at the Florida Regional 1649…the EMSs
As a side note… many EMT’s and FD’s collect or trade patches ect…
Some teams might want to start collecting a patch from the fire department from each city they go to. 
Glad to hear they have so much free time on their hands. 
We learned that last year. For some reason, we had a bunch of different designs, including ones from years past. We would always run out of buttons quickly because people would want one of each kind. This year we stuck to one design, and we actually came away from SVR with left over buttons!
Lets all work together to make sure all EMTs at FIRST events are this bored.
You’d be surprised at what Firefighter/EMT’s will do when we get bored. We will do alot of crazy stuff.