The GaCo Blog

I believe that much of the success that GaCo has experienced is the result of taking advantage of opportunity. Opportunity is a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something and, in GaCo’s case, that something is making a difference through “STEM Ready Kids.” Opportunity happened at BoB (off-season competition) with GaCo Senior, Mariah Bolden, volunteering to coordinate student ambassadors - something that would not have happened unless she had taken the opportunity to be a student ambassador at every past FIRST event that she could. Opportunity was also seized by “Loading…” the sophomore FTC team at Northern High School. They partnered with other Maryland FTC teams in a “Robot In 3 Days” competition as part of BoB this year. As a result, Loading… produced an amazing “reveal” video which will inspire many younger FTC teams and help them through this season’s design process. Check out their video on Facebook @FTCteam9445Loading. An impromptu Top Spinner/Binary lesso

That’s the number of lemonades GaCo made over the summer. Pretty amazing... GaCo is becoming known, not only for its vision of “STEM Ready Kids” but also for its lemonade! Part of the reason of our lemonade’s success is how we make it, old fashioned, fresh squeezed using our secret recipe which we freely share - a perfect example of Gracious Professionalism! The other secret ingredient is attention to detail… every one of our lemonades are made with exactly ⅓ cup (5 squirts) of syrup, ice filled to the top and thoroughly mixed. Even our homemade syrup is made with exactly one cup of water to one cup of sugar. This illustrates a basic GaCo tenet - that success is built not on one great thing but doing small things CONSISTENTLY over time. Of course, selling our lemonade for a family-friendly price of $2.00 doesn’t hurt matters any either… ok, $2.50 at the fair. :) This would not be possible without sacrifice, determination and teamwork - parents, mentors, and students making GaCo, and

One of the six or so youngsters visiting Garrett County over the Labor Day weekend that got one of GaCo's top spinners at Hartman's Liberty Gas Station in Accident, Maryland. Most every Labor Day or Memorial Day weekend you can catch students from FRC 1629, GaCo, offering "full service" at the Liberty Gas Station in the Town of Accident, Maryland. It's more than just a fundraiser. It's an opportunity to share with Garrett County visitors about our program and, if there's an eight year old present, an opportunity to engage our passion. This past labor day weekend we gave away at least six of our top spinners as well as dozens of our GaCo cards. But what I appreciate the most is that it provides an opportunity for "inspiration" to happen - like everything else in FIRST robotics. Inspiration goes both ways. While providing full service on Monday a mom pulled up and enthusiastically greeted us with "I know who you are!" She recounted