On Friday, July 26th, 2013, I LUG NY visited the Jerusalem Avenue Elementary School in Bellmore, New York. I LUG NY members Cody Wells and Brian Wygand had the pleasure of sharing their LEGO hobby with about 60 children in grades 1 through 6.Dina Bellucci, one of the Summer Curriculum Coordinators at the school contacted I LUG NY through our website back in April. After a few conversations and emails she shared what she would like for us to do with the students. I shared this with Cody and then we devised a plan. I requested a Smart Board to use for the presentation which meant we would be in a classroom opposed to the cafeteria as this is where this activity was to take place originally. Cody and I also felt that a LEGO presentation would be incomplete if the kids couldn’t build and keep a LEGO model. Cody then went to the LEGO Store in Elmhurst, Queens, to source parts for a small model that could be built using parts from a Pick a Brick Wall. He designed a 20 piece dune buggy in the store and bought enough parts to build 60 of them. Cody also felt that we would be able to do more with the kids if we had an hour to work with each group instead of 30 minutes and Dina agreed and set this up for us. I then arranged a slideshow of our models and 2 videos of a model and an I LUG NY display. I typed up a plan for our presentation, went over it with Cody and we were ready for our talk with the students at Jerusalem Avenue Elementary.
Upon entering the school we were known as “The LEGO Guys” and Dina met us at the front desk and escorted us to a classroom. We unpacked several models and set them up in the classroom for the kids to view. We introduced ourselves to the kids and the fun began. After the presentation we broke out into groups and instructed the kids on building Cody’s dune buggy. Several of the students were able to build the model just by looking at our completed sample models. Some worked with Cody and I and others worked with their teachers and support staff. I also saw many of the students throughout the 3 building sessions helping one another.
We spent time with 2 more groups of youngsters and each group was an absolute pleasure to be around. They were polite, listened well, were inquisitive and judging from their reactions to our models they enjoyed our work! Many of them love LEGO as much as we do and we enjoyed being there as much as they seemed to enjoy our models and building with us. We also brought LEGO Club magazines for all of the students so they left our presentations with a LEGO model and magazine.
Dina thanked us after the 3rd session and told us that the adults were very complimentary of us and let us know how much everyone enjoyed the presentations and said she hopes we can come back again next summer. Judging by how well we were received by the students and how much fun Cody and I had, it looks like we will be in Bellmore, Long Island, next July!
