Dan Green is a key individual making a difference in the future professionals of America. For twelve years, Dan has helped to shape and mold young minds to achieve their full potential. According to Dan Kramer, director of education at ACE Tech, gracious professionalism is “… seen in the genuine support and enthusiasm exemplified by Dan…”
Dan’s endless passion for FIRST is evident through the countless hours he dedicates to the program. Working with many ages, Dan is involved in all levels. He started a Junior FIRST Lego League team so younger students could participate in FIRST. He is extremely involved with the Illinois FLL state competition in all aspects from planning to emcee. He was recognized as Volunteer of the year at the Midwest Regional. He went on to earn Chief Delphi’s Unsung FIRST hero award. According to Rich Kressly, former senior mentor of team 103, “If all mentors in FIRST had [Dan’s] passion and vision, we’d already be in every school in the country.”
Dan is a driving force in promoting the FRC spirit to educators and corporations across the Midwest and aides in the founding of new teams. Team 1525, team captain, Alan Mellovitz said “Dan Green’s ‘Support Hot Line’ was always available and yielded tremendous mentorship guiding our team through numerous challenges.” Rookie teams know that Dan is “a ‘go to’ person” as stated by Karen Hill on team 1625.
Since 1998, Dan has been on the planning committee for the Midwest regional and became the committee chair. He also serves as a play by play announcer for multiple regionals and the Championship. This year, Dan got involved with the FIRST VEX challenge regional in St. Louis, where he served as emcee. In between announcing, he came to our pit to help our VEX team solve problems using teamwork.
WildStang can be attributed to one of our team’s co-founders, Dan Green. From his leadership experience at Motorola, he wanted to divide the team into several subteams covering different disciplines such as mechanical, electrical, marketing and strategy so that students get exposure to corporate structures and work more efficiently. Serving as team leader, and center of communication, Dan not only speaks with everybody, but he ensures that all subteams are productive at their meetings. He works with each subteam to offer technical advice. This inspires everyone to challenge themselves and helps keep the team running smoothly and create a finished product in six week’s time. Starting at the beginning of the build season, he leads the team in brainstorming and attends various subteam meetings. He has served as drive team coach and pit crew chief. When it comes time for team events, Dan does everything from registering us for Regionals, to personally inviting alumni to attend.
Thanks to Dan, WildStang has been partnered with Motorola for twelve years. He arranged for space at Motorola to build a practice playing field. Many parts the team needs are manufactured in a Motorola machine shop that Dan has arranged for use. He also instituted what is known as the student to mentor cycle. He works to secure internships and helps graduated students get jobs at Motorola, and later become mentors.
A team member says, “[Dan] has perhaps the greatest impact in establishing a healthy relationship between FIRST, Motorola, the schools, and the Students.” Known by his team as Mr. FIRST, he is exactly that. Without his driving passion and calm composure, our team would flounder, other teams would lack mentorship, and we would be without a key role model. We feel that nobody is more deserving of this award.
