Arts & Entertainment
Lego Club Inspires Families to Come Together and Create
The monthly Lego club welcomes kids and their parents for a night of creativity and family time at the Homewood Public Library.
Nathan and Matthew Hillis, ages 5 and 3 respectively, like to build cars and trains when they attend the monthly Lego Club at . But mostly, they like spending time with their dad.
“We’re here at most (Lego club meetings),” said Ben Hillis of Homewood as he and his sons busily pulled Legos of various shapes and sizes out of the plastic box.
The Lego Club is held monthly and is one of the library’s most popular programs, according to Homewood Public Library's children’s librarian, Sarah Mercier. Between 35 and 70 people participate in the club each month, which has been going strong for about a year. The February meeting, on Thursday night, drew about 50.
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"All of the library’s Legos have been donated by either groups or individuals," said Mercier.
Each club meeting has a theme and Thursday’s was Superheroes. Mercier provided pictures of the superheroes attendees might build. She also put a line-up of library books on a nearby shelf: books on Spiderman, the Fantastic Four, Wolverine, Captain America and the Hulk.
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Angelo Tavas and Anthony Cosenga, both 9, seemed more than happy to concentrate on Superhero characters. Their particular box of Legos contained more than a few small, plastic action figures, as Angelo soon discovered.
“Look, Anthony, Chewbacca,” Angelo said, holding it up.
While the event was originally created to target younger boys, a demographic tha Mercier said is often overlooked, girls participate in the event regularly. Madison Schneider, 8, and her friends were hard at work as the evening progressed.
“I made something like this at home,” she said, pointing to each component of her creation.“I wanted to show (my friends)."
Madison and her fellow builders, sister Claire, 7, Elizabeth Scanlon, and Sky Rodriguez, 6, were taking a decidedly different tack than the boys sitting near them. The group of girls were hard at work on a house and a garden, complete with gate, palm tree and workers.
One thing was clear, however, whether boy or girl, all of the kids in attendance loved playing Legos with their friends and family.
“I just really like Legos,” Anthony said, as he worked. “So I just really like to play with them... they’re exciting.”
The Lego Club is open to the public free of charge each month. The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 31, 6:30-7:30 p.m. For more information, visit the Homewood Public Library website.
