Saturday, July 7, 2007

One person (or one video) CAN make a difference...

I got a note from Greg Banks last week. He's the coach to the FIRST LEGO League team, the PigMice. This team won the Champion's Award at the World Festival in June, and deservedly so!

The challenge for 2008 has not been revealed yet, so right now,  not much is going on, except for funding. One of neat things that has happened to me is that the video I did about the FLL World Festival has been requested by teams to help promote FLL. The PigMice did a presentation and tour at IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California. What's cool is that the team is based in Portland, Oregon - IBM invited them!

Take a look at this link. This is the presentation the team did. This is not a short program, but it's a good look at FLL for everyone - the kids are delightful to watch, and they are VERY professional in their presentation.

And my video was shown!

Greg's note told me about that, but it was still a surprise to see...and this was seen by the IBM Board of Directors as well as the peple who saw this online and at the presentation. I'm proud to see this happen, as one of BrickJournal's missions is to publicize the best of the LEGO community and hobby. And it's happening - in the most surprising ways.

I made the video because I wanted to show everyone all the cool things about the Festival - and while there were some things in the video, there is so much more to see and discover. Seeing the PigMice presentation also reminds me about the most important thing about FLL: It inspires.

Watching the team answer questions at the presentation is impressive too, because IBM scientists are asking them about their robot - and they are answering!

For me, its wonderful to be able to help in some small way.

Thanks Greg!

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