FIRST Tech Challenge possible thanks to passionate Volunteers

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to travel to the NYC FTC Championship, at NYU Polytechnic, in Brooklyn, NY.  While I was there, I had the privilege of working alongside some great volunteers and I was blown away by the outpouring of support they gave to the competition.

The hundreds of students who were present for the tournament were able to have a great experience thanks to the dedication of the volunteers who showed up from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  It was inspiring to see these men and women give up their own time and resources to teach our future leaders the importance of science and technology, as well as the power of team work and gracious professionalism.

The NYC Championship, however, was just one of over 400 FTC events this season.  Thousands of individuals from around the world decided to commit their time to support teams and events at competitions from Brooklyn to Anchorage, Asia and Europe.  

These individuals spent their weeknights planning and organizing for events that took up entire weekends.  They worked late into the night setting up the evening before tournaments and showed up early the next morning to run it.  They spent their Saturdays standing all day, managing hundreds of teenagers and making sure the technology to run robots in head-to-head competition worked properly.

Without these passionate individuals filling roles both big and small, FTC would not be possible.

In fact, the entire FIRST organization is reliant on volunteers.  Each year, 130,000 + people give their time to help us meet our mission of inspiring kids from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade to become science and technology leaders.  Annually, these amazing individuals contribute over eight million hours of time volunteering at events, mentoring students and coaching teams.

So, as we approach the close of another FTC season, I want to thank all of the amazing volunteers who supported us this year.  Whether you gave up a Saturday morning to run event check-in at an event or committed months of your life to organizing and planning FTC in your region, you played an integral role in the success of this program.

Thank you!