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As a teenager, Woodie Claude Flowers was surrounded by loving mother and father and mentors that instilled many important core values in “Scooter” together with the significance of Woodie being useful, type, respectful, inquisitive, and humble. Woodie embodied these values all through his life. Within the early years of FIRST, the extremely coveted Johnson & Johnson Sportsmanship Award was born as a celebration of Woodie’s need to convey sportsmanship collectively whereas constructing robots. Earlier than most of you had been born, the seeds of one thing particular had been being sown as highlighted when Woodie addressed the 1995 FRC Championships at Disney World:
Right this moment is a celebration of the unbelievable quantity of interplay and studying that you’ve been taking part in over the previous couple of months. Strive, though I do know it’s inconceivable, to take a deep breath and calm down and simply take pleasure in this course of. One of many little psychological experiments that you simply wish to do, I believe, is to think about that your Grandparents watch every part that you simply do while you’re right here and Gracious Conduct helps greater than anything.
The complete FIRST group had been ambassadors to this new idea of Gracious Conduct, with Professionalism and Sportsmanship rising collectively; GRACIOUS PROFESSIONALISM® was born with Woodie as our shepherd. Woodie usually mentioned, it’s extra essential to grasp Gracious Professionalism than to outline it. In 2004, Woodie premiered Gracious Professionalism within the Sport Guide.
Gracious professionals make a valued contribution in a fashion pleasing to others and to themselves. In FIRST, probably the most simple interpretations of gracious professionalism is that we be taught and compete like loopy, however deal with each other with respect and kindness within the course of. We attempt to keep away from leaving anybody feeling like they’re losers. No chest thumping barbarian robust discuss, however no sticky candy platitudes both. Information, pleasure and empathy comfortably blended…. In the long term, gracious professionalism is a part of pursuing a significant life.
Right this moment, we should all be gracious professionals in every part we do! Greater than ever, the world wants us to be swish beacons of sunshine. Whereas there are various definitions of Gracious Professionalism, everyone knows it after we see it. Please interact with grace and kindness. We encourage and problem groups to debate what Gracious Professionalism appears to be like and looks like. In case you actually embody Gracious Professionalism, you come away out of your competitions feeling nice whether or not you had been first or final. Gracious Professionalism is the best present to your group, your group, and your World.
Liz Calef (1997)
Mike Bastoni (1998)
Ken Patton (1999)
Kyle Hughes (2000)
Invoice Beatty (2001)
David Verbrugge (2002)
Andy Baker (2003)
Dave Kelso (2004)
Paul Copioli (2005)
Rob Mainieri (2006)
Dan Inexperienced (2007)
Mark Breadner (2008)
John Novak (2009)
Chris Fultz (2010)
John Larock (2011)
Earl Scime (2012)
Fredi Lajvardi (2013)
Lane Matheson (2014)
Mark Lawrence (2015)
Eric Stokely (2016)
Glenn Lee (2017)
Gail Drake (2018)
Allen Gregory (2019)
Lucien Junkin (2020)
Matt Fagen (2021)
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