shah269 0 #1 April 2, 2012 This past Friday, Saturday and Sunday a great group of local kids from NJ, sponsored by my office competed in a local tournament. Usually these large teams have vast resources and full teachers and administrative support over a period of 6 weeks to build these amazing complex machines. This small team of 7 scrappy talented young kids had none of that. For the first part of the build season, the team sat in purgatory not sure if they were going to get off the ground or not. The money they needed to order parts was frozen due to procedural issues and teachers were unsure if they could afford the time commitment needed for the program and thus stood back. Eventually things "broke" and the office got a phone call that we feared the most. We had sponsored this team under the auspices that the school would provide space for the build and the appropriate supervision. Now we were being told that unless something happened these great kids would not be able to compete. It was decided that the office would step up and assign me as the; lead sponsor, lead builder and coach. Something that never happens and was unplanned. Over two weeks the students working in the living room, dining room and kitchen of one of the parents formulated the design, built and tested their robot from nothing more than a box of parts and any spare pieces of metal we could buy or scrounge from around the school and donations from other teams that my office suported. Ten nights of all of us being up till 11pm or later and the robot was ready to roll. Our first entrance into the filed in PA was a crash landing into the community. However our second competition was much smoother. The students were aware of their roles and all the kinks that most teams had ironed out over their 6 week build time were fixed and sorted out. The students and the robot performed flawlessly at their second event and had the opportunity to meet and speak with the executive staff of my organization and thank them for all of their support. Though they didn't place as high in the rankings as they would have wanted to they were very proud of all the hard work they had done and are already planning on recurring more students and having a bigger team for next year! (not sure if i can post photos of the kids so i won't but those who are friends with me on face book you know who i'm talking about!) Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
airtwardo 7 #2 April 2, 2012 ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JohnMitchell 16 #3 April 2, 2012 Sounds like you had a super cool experience and helped a lot of kids. And there's nothing like helping others to take your mind off your problems. Watch out, Shah, or you're gonna get a good reputation around here.As the father of four, I've spent many hours out in the garage with my kids, helping them build all kinds of school projects. I always enjoyed the process of brainstorming, problem solving and learning that went with all of it. My kids know how to measure, hammer, cut, solder, etc. and I got to see how amazingly smart and creative my children were. Those were some of the best times ever. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shah269 0 #4 April 2, 2012 Thanks John, though I'm 99.99999% sure I'm not designed to be a dad I did have a great time working with the kids!Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
