ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – All week long, U.P. State Fair attendees have been constructing a collaborative project using Legos.
Robot Fair Play has been hosting a “Big Build” with nearly one ton of Legos donated by FIRST Robotics. Builders of all ages can add whatever they want to the community farm, which currently takes up several tables in the Miracle of Life Pavilion.
“I asked for a farming community, and our farming community has a lot of things!” said Robot Fair Play Coordinator Denise Messina. “We even have a roller coaster and an awesome airplane. There are so many creations, it’s unbelievable.”
Children ages 2 to 4 can play with Duplo blocks and take a small bag of Duplos home with them. Kids in kindergarten through fifth grade can build whatever they imagine and, as long as it fits in a baggie, take their creation home.
“Kids really need to think about what they’re doing, right?” Messina said. “We want to get them off those devices a little bit and actually get their hands in something and create something. What they don’t know is they’re actually young engineers because. They’ve taken it from their brain and they’ve had to dig through the pieces and somehow find the specific pieces they need for their creation to come out however they wanted that to be.”
Messina says she has been thrilled by the response to Robot Fair Play’s first year of Lego activities, especially the “Big Build.”
“I wasn’t sure how this was going to go,” she said. “I only put up three tables for display. After day two, we added a table. Yesterday, we added another table, and now we’ve put up two more so that people can add for the next few days. We will be here at the fair for another two years; we obviously have enough Legos!”
Robot Fair Play is accepting Lego donations for next year’s event. Anyone interested in donating can contact Messina at robotfairplay@gmail.com.
To see what else Robot Fair Play is doing at the fair, click here. Lego activities will continue through Sunday, although organizers will begin packing everything up in order to leave by the time the fair closes.
WZMQ 19 is a proud Reserve Champion Sponsor of the 2024 U.P. State Fair.
