Why? Because I’m a mentor.
I walked out to the area where the robot was getting ready to move, and there’s no room near the robot. I look again, and realize it’s all students.
That was my feel good moment for today. 
I am glad that mentors in FIRST steps back and lets us build the robot.
… thats how we get the best experience.
I want to take a moment to thank every single FIRST mentors on behalf of all the FIRSTers (students) out there for giving us the best we can get.
Hehe, i remember when i was but a wee lad still a student on my team, i used to chase mentors out of the pit at competitions. What can i say, even if a student doesnt know exactly what they are doing, there is alot more to be learned from breaking the robot, and having to fix it, then not letting a student touch it. I never gave them a chance to brush me off, i was always the first one to dive in elbow deep. Now im not saying any fool hardy person should do this, im just saying the more the student actually interacts with the machine, the more they learn.
Well said, we here at 1219 respect our mentors form the bottom of our hearts; however, we are lucky to have mentors that stand back and let us work. We take thier advice seriously all the time and we(Students) always find that what we build ourselves is always a highlight for us. Our robot is totally done by students, the ideas produced through discussions between students and mentors, apart from some milling through CNC at Senecca College and some very precise angular cuts and wheel modification; students made mostly everything themselves.
I think what i am trying to say is: “Mentors at 1219 and all the other gracious mentors in FIRST, we really appreciate your patience with us and need your continuous advice and support.”
We make our entire robot ourselves. Then again we dont really have mentors. We do have several very dedicated parents, one of whom spends all day every day at school (often subbing for a teacher and working on logistical stuff for us the rest of the time), then spends every afternoon from two until six putting up with ten obnoxious students with sawzalls :ahh: . We owe them all a lot.