Did Santa Come Early at Makersville's Monday Family Days? YES!

I should clarify. It wasn’t a fat guy in a big red hat. It was the spirit of Santa, who brought to us the spirit of Christmas.

Santa brings you what you most dearly desire.

THE COMMUNITY LEMONADE GAME

Since 2012, I’ve been working to make a Maker Space happen. It started with something I at the time called The Community Lemonade Game. I declared that I would do 100 days of blogging on the Belmont Shore Patch. During the game, I would seek materials, Makers, and at least one space (ideally 3). We would make things together. It’s a fun read, so I encourage you to follow the link to the post.

It’s very funny, but I don’t remember if I completed it, but I did find a record of having met the real-deal Tinkerbell, Margaret Kerry, on day 79. Let’s face it, 100 days is a long time, and I’m a busy gal. Busy making things.

Anywhoo... somewhere in the past 3 years, I found the Long Beach Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America and we started making a Maker Space. We are now calling the past three years an experimental collaboration, and it was, but at the time, we didn’t know that it was. Get that?

Somewhere along the line we found equipment and materials in abundance! If you don’t know about our legendary fabric donation, you can read about it here. I will admit I changed one of the rules of the Community Lemonade Game, which is that I wasn’t going to spend any money. It’s in the rules that I can change the rules, so it’s all fair play! But I didn’t provide all of the equipment, we got a couple of grants from friends and Makers.

The Makers came together to share what they make with the community. The core supporting group that came together, Morio Murase, Caprice Rothe and I were joined along the way by others who visited and shared for a time. My bestie Mary Simun joins us quite often. Then we met the lovely Miller couple, Jesse and Jenne, who are expecting a little Maker of their own. Sometimes dad Burk, who helped us get started on Minecraft, joins us too!

But Makers like to share what they make, so it’s not complete without someone with whom to share.

Yesterday, we were privileged to be joined by a group of Makers who came together to make things. Experience has shown that we should have some prepared projects, but we always hope that a participant will come with his/her own projects to make.

And yesterday they did just that.

It was an amazing day, and Santa brought us little helpers, little Makers...and Renaissance High School Makers to themselves volunteer and make things!

YES! Santa definitely came early to Makersville Family Days on Monday!

I think that yesterday, I won the Community Lemonade Game. Don’t you?

YOU CAN MAKE TOO!

Here are the details for participating in Makersville Family Days! Two more days of Making left!

We also had a lovely visit from a KCBS reporter, seeking warm stories to share. I think she found it!

MORE ABOUT MAKER CULTURE

If you want to know more about about the importance of Maker Culture to society and education today and tomorrow, here are a few reads for you.

Deloitte Center for the Edge on the Maker Movement

Bajarin, Tim. “Why the Maker Movement is Important to America’s Future.” Time.com

And a link about our group and collaboration with the Long Beach Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America.