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Volunteer Profiles

FIRST is truly a volunteer driven organization. 

Through your continued support and dedication to  FIRST programs as Committee Members, Partners, Team Mentors, Coaches, Team Parents and Event Volunteers, you make FIRST possible.  

We are grateful to the volunteers who give their time, talent and expertise to make each of the FLL, FTC and FRC events and FIRST Championship such huge successes.

Below are profiles of just a few of our dedicated FIRST volunteers:

Team Mentor

"FIRST gives me a tool in which to engage and inspire students in ways far beyond science and technology. Now entering my tenth year of mentoring FIRST teams, I have watched FIRST students find a reason to be in school and watched minority girls realize that engineering is not only something they like, but something they are capable of doing. It enables both students and adults to appreciate the value of sportsmanship, teamwork, and gracious professionalism in a way that I did not know was possible. If it didn't, I wouldn't still be doing it!" 

–Rob Mainieri, Math Teacher– 2006 Winner of the Woodie Flowers Award for excellence in teaching science, math and creative design

Event Volunteer

“The FIRST phenomenon is that your personal contribution turns into blood-pumping excitement…”

–Susan Peckham, BAE Systems, FIRST  Volunteer Coordinator, Regional Planning Committee

(From Left to Right: Susan Peckham, Linda Lavoie and Lorrie Robinson)

Coach

 “Informed, creative thinking is going to be the mechanism for change in the future. FIRST challenges and inspires students to create solutions using informed creative thinking. In many cases the results are nothing less than extraordinary. It has provided the inspiration for students in rural Alaska to, for the first time, understand the need to have basic math, science and technologyskills.”

–Dave Patterson, FLL Partner, President , Alaska Robotics Education Association

Team Parent

“As a team parent on a FIRST Robotics Team I have shared so many great experiences with my sons. I feel I am learning and growing alongside them as well as helping out other students on the team. From mentoring on committees to attending the competitions, there is always the feeling of excitement and accomplishment being part of the team. While traveling with the team as a team parent I have met many wonderful people from all over the world. The FIRST Robotics Team experience, as a parent, is by far one of the most rewarding things I have done with my sons.”

– Laura Bush, Team Parent & Event Volunteer