Inaugural Lego Club meeting exceeds expectations

Last month’s LEGO Club meeting appeared to draw much interest from the community.

Resident Ashley Hall organized the event to gauge whether there was enough interest in forming a club for LEGO enthusiasts.

During the meeting at Pahrump Community Library, Hall compiled a survey, which she said exceeded her expectations.

Hall said more than 70 residents attended the meeting, though it is likely more were there as some individuals arrived late and may not have filled out the survey form.

Additionally, Hall noted that 38 kids also attended the meeting.

“More than 80 percent of the parents said they would volunteer to help out with the LEGO Club,” she said. “It was a total of 22 parents, with four of them saying that they would commit to five to ten hours per month. At least seven parents said they would give as much time as needed. The remaining 11 could commit up to five hours per month. I did not expect that level of enthusiasm to help out.”

Hall mentioned a national program formed in 1992, known as FIRST LEGO where teams are created to form competition leagues to earn awards in various challenging categories, including robotics, mechanical design and teamwork.

She said one of the first orders of business is fundraising.

“FIRST LEGO requires registration and the purchasing of LEGO kits, and that can run well over $1000 per team and up to over $6000 for the robotics teams,” she said. “We will start working on fundraising as soon as we form official teams. Future projects will hopefully incorporate community businesses and public organizations as we hope to model civic participation as much as we hope to teach STEM skills, which are Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.”

Judging from the inaugural meeting, Hall said she plans to schedule future meetings to chart a course of action.

“It is clear that we need to break up into smaller clubs,” she said. “There was more than enough interest in LEGO competitions, that we will likely explore creating FIRST LEGO teams, at least at the Junior and FIRST level. There were no high school kids present so a FIRST LEGO robotics club will have to wait until I can hopefully recruit some high school kids.”

During the meeting Hall said she was surprised and grateful to find two boxes full of small LEGO packages, provided by the Pahrump Community Library.

“This doubled the amount of LEGOs that we had to play with and likely ensures that we have enough to begin the clubs without having to purchase more beyond the 40 lbs. that I purchased to start with.”

Hall said she will announce future Pahrump Lego Club meetings at the library in the coming months.

The library is located at 701 East St.

Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes