Team Award Trophy Cases in School

Competition Awards
21

I will admit, at first our school didnt really know what to do with us. They saw us as “another club” and really for the first three years, we were allowed to put up displays in a few of the cases that were rotating for different groups (ie Art got it for a month, student council for a month, robotics for a month, etc). Right in the front of the school was a huge trophy case of awards, but as one of our students noted, the last award from one of the events was 1992, and they were collecting dust. Im all for history, but thats before I was in high school!

But in our first year we racked up 6 trophies, including Champs RAS, and while they were proud of us, they just didnt have a solid spot. So we kept asking to borrow the cases, and kept asking, and asking…

Around the start of our third build season (two more trophies just hanging out in our shop), they finally agreed to give us our own case up by the science wing. Neat because it was right near our shop and one of the tech rooms.

Last year, we revamped the case, and also our tech teacher bought us a bulletin board from his technology funds and we had it installed on one of the walls near our case. Now we can communicate AND display our trophies!

For any teams that are struggling, just keep asking, and keep letting the school know that you appreciate their support. Its hard for a lot of schools to recognize the difference between robotics and their 30+ other clubs, but if you can convince them that FIRST is different, you have succeeded, and you will get your case eventually :slight_smile: Do as many Board of Ed presentations and demos as you can, the more the adminstration knows about you, the more likely you are to get your foot in the door as “something different”. And if all else fails, fundraise the money to buy your own case and ask if they will give you a safe place to put the case.

I have attached pictures from last build season of our bulletin board, our trophy case, and the display area that Harris gave us. Good luck!

bulletin.jpg
Case.jpg
Harris.jpg


bulletin.jpg
Case.jpg
Harris.jpg

22

Hmm, I feel a NEMO paper coming on…

I have different “Wish Lists” I give out to targeted people to help teams. It appears that having one targeting school administrators is needed.

23

I’ll admit.
Every year, we’ve been acquiring more facilities. We have lots of space to put awards in our robotics facilities.
Our main construction room has high ceilings and conduits where we can hang our banners 20 ft in the air.
We haven’t tried it yet though.

http://www.waialuarobotics.com/roboticsroom.html

24

This is an old thread, but I took the initiative this year and we had a brand new trophy case given to us by the school that sits right in front of the principal’s office and the front entrance of the building. We even have other display cases for all our stuff. Our sponsors all share trophies as well.

I know this may not be much for other teams but it felt like a huge showing of respect for our 14 year old team to finally have a beautiful trophy case at the gates of the school and the principal’s office. :slight_smile: We’re really happy with this. 09 was an awesome rebuilding year.

25

Our team has a little trophy cabinet in our front foyer. It’s big enough to hold 2 of our trophies, as well as “the claw” from our rack-n-roll robot. It was an effort just to get that little thing, but it’s better than nothing! =] We also have a bulletin board by the metal shop.

The best part is when students STILL say “oh, I didn’t know we had a robotics team…”