Building Community: Junior LEGO Masters Building Experience
Posted by MeganL,
This week in Building Community, Holly tells us about a virtual LEGO experience for younger LEGO fans....
This article is about a program with which I was personally involved and consequentially kicked off this “Building Community” series, so I’m including an introduction to myself and what I’m doing here.
My story begins in 2018 as I was promoting my project for LEGO IDEAS and began actively participating in LEGO related events. As I travelled to various exhibitions, became more immersed in the AFOL community, and met with more and more LEGO builders, there was something I observed everywhere I went.
The LEGO fan community is notably homogenous. It’s not much of a surprise, but up until then I’d only had interactions with other AFOLs online and hadn’t really considered the demographics. Eventually, I attended an international event where fans are invited from all over the world, and there was still an apparently dominant demographic while many others remained underrepresented or nonexistent. I had enough of a sample size at that point to recognize that something was amiss. Our main reason for assembling and exhibiting is to share our love of LEGO with others; so I’ve kept wondering, as someone fortunate to already be in the mix, how to reach those hard to reach people. I’m obviously not the first to consider this, and in just these last couple of years I’ve noticed huge strides being made by both The LEGO Group and its fans to promote diversity in all sorts of interesting ways.
Fast forward to recent events in 2020. This has been a tumultuous year and many of us have used LEGO bricks to escape. Our relationships with other AFOLs have been helping us through some tough times. But it’s impossible to ignore the injustices and divisiveness plaguing the world, especially with all that’s going on in my hometown of Portland, OR. Instead of feeling helpless and frustrated, I needed to get involved with something to which I could have a personal connection and feel confident that I was making a direct impact. Be the change you want to see in the world, or something to that effect, right?
I believe the first step to getting involved in something meaningful is to ask questions. So I got in touch with my buddy, Mel Brown, who I’d met at my local convention. You may know him as the guy from LEGO Masters USA wearing a police officer uniform. I wanted to know how Mel was doing and asked about his perspective. We discussed the observations I’d been making about the LEGO community. I asked questions like “How can we influence and make a difference?”, “How do we make LEGO a cool activity so all kinds of kids want to build?”, “How do we keep minorities engaged and involved in the community?” Of course I didn’t mean just me and Mel, but all of us in this AFOL community. I worried that I’d unloaded too much and would never hear from him again.
About a week later I got a call from Mel. “You still want to help make a difference?” he asks. And so it began. Mel told me about the idea for his camp and insisted he needed my help to make it happen.
The following is my interview with Mel Brown after we concluded the first session of Junior LEGO Masters Camp.
Describe the program with which you’re involved.
The Junior Lego Masters Building Experience is a youth mentoring and outreach program. The program is geared towards first generation college prospects, youth who have little to no experience with LEGO inside the household. The goals of Jr. LM Building Experience are to expose less fortunate youth to the LEGO lifestyle. At the same time we are exercising the social skills of youth through a virtual classroom. We are teaching life skills along with LEGO learning.
How long have you been doing this?
We have newly started the program, the outline was designed for six weeks. The youth get one hour on a designated day with LEGO instructors, and they get LEGO instructional projects sent to them via email for the remaining days of the week.
Weekly instructional builds designed by Holly using parts from camp kit (set #10696)
How did you get started?
Well I got started by a friend (Holly) who asked how she could help with the inequality and the lack of inclusion that is going on in the world. So with my background being involved in youth programs I pitched an idea to Holly and other LEGO friends, community partners, i.e. local schools youth scholarship trust organizations, and together we came up with a six week curriculum. I asked the Facebook LEGO community for help with acquiring LEGO boxes for the participating children. The response was phenomenal. The mail box overflowed with LEGO boxes and the participating youth got to keep the LEGO.
Half of the youth that are participating in the program come from the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County communities that I served as a police officer with the partnership of Reggie Broddie . And the other half of the youth came from a LEGO summer program that I organized under the PAL (Police Activities League) in the community right outside of Washington DC. So two different communities get to intermingle by the common love of LEGO.
How long have you been involved in LEGO?
I've been building with LEGO for four years, my little guy who is 6 now wanted to see the LEGO Batman Movie four years back and after the movie he wanted the LEGO batmobile "SpeedWagon", so I went to the store and got it for him. Now he was only 3 years old at the time so I had to build the set for him. I had an Instagram account and I uploaded the picture only to discover that there was this adult LEGO community. The photos of all of the wonderful things being built with LEGO had me hooked.
Kian learning to build characters
How many people have been reached so far?
So with the program we have reached 15 children in the very first session of six weeks. And we currently have 40 children waiting for the second session to start in October 2020. We have enlisted volunteers, including Holly, LEGO Master Jermaine Gardner, LEGO Master Corey Sams, LEGO Masters Richard Board and Flynn DeMarco, along with Todd Hardy of Classic Plastic Bricks, and Reggie Broddie of Annapolis Scholarship Trust.
Theme for the week: "Back to School"
How has this organization/activity been affected by the pandemic?
I think this program has been able to be propelled by way of the pandemic. We have multiple people in different locations collaborating together in the same classroom.
LEGO Master Corey leading a lesson on the basics of building vehicles
LEGO Master Flynn and Instructor Holly guiding kids through landscaping lessons
Let's be honest, there are some cons to virtual learning though, am I right?
True. There are some cons. There’s the inability to have total classroom control. And it’s tough to teach and learn not being hands on with a learning class that’s literally hands on. And the pink elephant in the room is the digital divide. We run into the reality of the haves and the have nots. Children who want to participate can’t because they don’t have access to a laptop or internet. Did you know we have children that attended our LEGO classroom that went to a McDonald’s to get WiFi just to sit in on the classroom instruction? They were ashamed to turn on their cameras in fear that they would be judged. No child should ever have to experience the embarrassment of not having something imperative to their learning.
What are your/the group's future plans?
The future for this program is bright. We will continue to facilitate this style of LEGO learning to benefit the communities we serve. Hopefully we can be a permanent after-school program serving multiple school communities.
For anyone interested in helping with your program, where can they find more information?
They can reach out to Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Scholarship Trust via their website or my email at icebergbricks1025 (at) gmail (dot) com
Any recommendations for others looking to have a positive impact in their communities?
Contacting your local Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCAs or local community centers, even your local principles for after-school programs could make the difference.
So, this is what led to this series of articles we call “Building Community”. I wondered how other LEGO users were making these same efforts and have similar stories to tell. I’m so glad MeganL was also interested in sharing these stories and that they’ll have a home here! Sometimes people want to help but don’t know how or where to begin. We hope these stories will be uplifting and encourage others to look around and see a need that might be helped by a little LEGO love. A huge thanks to Mel for the inspiration!
Do you know of an individual or an organization who should be featured in Building Community? Let us know.
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9 comments on this article
I wish there was something like this in the UK when I was younger
When I was a kid, we only got the sporadic competition as a club. I wish all the best to those who have this opportunity.
Very good to work on getting children familiar with Lego as it can be so beneficial for development. With AFOLs I have noticed as well that diversity is low, but as a seller of Legos there is more diversity than you see at meetups. I can imagine women and minorities not immediately being enthusiastic when they see photos of usual Lego events. They are out there though, so let's hope they feel welcome enough to join in the future. I surely welcome some diversity.
When I was a kid, I got told I was too old to buy LEGO sets with my own money. Yeah, that lesson didn't really take, did it?
Anyways, I've noticed a lot of roadblocks that sit before a person who wants to be an active AFOL. Money is the big one. I mean, face it, building up a huge collection is _EXPENSIVE_. When you see a LUG where every member is capable of putting on large solo displays, it can be a bit daunting. Having a format where people can participate just a tiny bit can be a huge step in getting more people involved. I've seen LUGs where everyone does their own thing, completely separate from what anyone else does. I've seen LUGs where they do a combined layout, but where every individual is responsible for or more complete sections. And I've seen LUGs (and joined one) where the club does a communal layout that anyone can contribute to. It may just be a single car, or a modest building, but it gives them an opening to participate even if their entire collection fits in one 18-gallon tub.
For the demographics, when you see a group that consists solely of white men, and you're not white, or you're not male, or you're not either, it's understandable if that makes someone reluctant to join because they feel conspicuous, or worry that they won't be welcome. Or worry that they'll be _too_ welcome if they're the only female in a crowd of guys. As with most things in life, there are no guarantees. Some LUGs welcome any and all, and others can be more than a little exclusionary. You won't know unless you ask, and if you live in an area that has multiple LUGs, it's a fairly safe bet that they'll give you very different answers.
My personal observation has been that the gender divide is making more progress than the racial one, but both are making progress.
Seeing this huge, huge smile on that boy's face is pure happiness. Bravo!
That is a beautiful program. Thank you for telling us about it. It made me think of my mom back in the 1980's. Six of her seven kids had moved out and she was volunteering in a grade one class every morning in a downtown school that had a lot of poor families . Mom took our entire Lego collection to the school for the class. She said that slowly over the course of the year the huge pile dwindled down as the boys and girls took their little creations home in their pockets. Mom always smiled when she thought of those little boys and girls playing with that Lego we had all played with for so many years.
Bravo!
This. Is. Awesome.
My first Lego set was actually from the Boys and Girls Club Christmas toy drive. We were able to pick out 1 toy from a room they walked us into in small groups. I picked 6546 at 8yo and was hooked.
A very nice article. Thank you. If you ever do a follow-up, I would love to know more about how did the kids react to the whole experience? Did they like it but then forget about building as soon as the program ended? Did their confidence increase? That sort of stuff :)