After all those months of planning and preparation, the Expo itself went remarkably well.  The volunteers were fantastic and took over the nitty-gritty details, leaving me free to chat with kids and their parents and assist the judges.  The judges were equally fantastic, taking their job very seriously while having a great time talking with each child and viewing their models.  The kids and their parents were terrific, enjoying each other’s models while loving the moments of unadultered attention as a judge listened to the story behind their model.

The first age group, the 3 to 5 year olds, was small and manageable, allowing the judges to really give personal attention to each of these tender young Lego artists.  Lots of great models here: a tricked out Duplo mini-van, Stretchy Frogs Super Agent Spy Mobiles, a rocket, an amusement park, and others that I (unfortunately!) can’t remember.  For this age group, it’s more about the story behind the model than the model itself, and the judges (Marc and Tina) did a wonderful job listening to each child and remembering key points about each model when it came time to present the Certificates of Achievement.  Marc and Tina quite wisely decided to forgo place ribbons for this group, and instead placed the emphasis on giving each child a moment in the spotlight; everyone got a round of applause and knew that his or her model had been seen and appreciated.  There were some tears when I drew the raffle winner, though, which made me think I need to do that age group’s raffle drawing differently, either altering my announcement to warn that only one child will win, or drawing the winner after the Expo, or perhaps eliminating the raffle item entirely.  Something to chew on…

The next age group, the 5 to 9 year olds, was enormous and enthusiastic.  The judges for this group, Bess, Marc, Rob, and David, were a bit overwhelmed by the volume of entries and the verbosity of the model builders, putting my careful plans way behind schedule.  Once again, I’ll have to make changes for next year here.  I think the best route will be to divide this group into two groups, which I can do based upon the ages of the attendees on Saturday (Excel spreadsheet, here we come!).  But even though the judging was long and involved here, I think that the judges still enjoyed themselves.  This age group is the “sweet spot” for Legos, brimming over with joy and creativity and storytelling.  There were Lego museums, Lego spaceships, Lego wars, Lego recycling centers, and even a Lego rainbow (my favorite).  And, happily, a mix of boys and girls participating.  The judges did award place ribbons here, though there were multiple 1st place winners, and multiple 2nd and 3rd place winners.  This age expected competition, and no one was distressed by the awarding of ribbons.  Likewise, I prefaced my drawing of the raffle Lego set with some sort of garbled statement that only one person would win, please no one be upset, yadda yadda yadda. 

The oldest age group, ages 9 – 12+, turned out to be only 10 and 11 year old boys.  (What happens to the girls?  How sad!)  This group was more focused on mechanics and engineering, with lots of remote controlled models and cool mechanical design.  The judges for this group, Bess, Rob, and Bart, had an easier time making the rounds, but a much, much harder time picking winners.  How to compare a lobsterboat setup with a remote-controlled car?  How to measure conceptual design versus technical expertise?  Ultimately, they wisely decided to award 2 of each ribbon, negotiating amongst themselves as they narrowed the field down.   And the raffle drawing was painless and happy.

Though exhausting, it was a wonderful, wonderful day.  So many happy kids, so much community spirit and good will in the room.  And it was terrific to be part of something that emphasized childrens’ creativity with their hands and their minds – no t.v., no computers. 

I’ll be sending out personal thank-yous to each volunteer and judge, but I’d also like to print here a very heartfelt expression of gratitude to this special group of people.  Without them, there wouldn’t have been a Lego Expo.  Thank you.

Saturday was the event that’s been consuming my attention for the last four months – the Lego Expo.  In my past life as a speciality toy retail manager at the Toy Shop in Concord I got to be the store owner’s right-hand girl and helped plan and run several Lego Expos, so I’ve had a dream of running a Lego Expo at the library since I started there three and a half years ago.  This year it was finally possible: we have the space now, and we’ve been settled into the new building long enough for me to have the time to organize such a large event.  And somewhere in those crashed and lost and deleted email files, I had an email from Lego giving me their blessing, if not their direct support, to run the event.

What’s a Lego Expo, you’re asking?  Kids bring in creative Lego models that they’ve made at home for display at the library.  Judges from the community view all the models and talk with the kids who made the models.  Everyone receives a certificate of achievement, and some kids receive 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place ribbons.  The kids are divided into three age groups (3 to 5, 5 to 9, and 9 to 12+).  At the end of each age group, I draw a raffle winner (each child gets one raffle ticket), and that raffle winner gets a nice big Lego set paid for by the Friends of the Library.  It’s a bit chaotic, a lot creative, and enormously fun.

And a lot of work.  A LOT of work.  After four months of planning and stress, I’m seriously exhausted today (if it weren’t for those two huge cups of coffee, I’d be asleep right now – I’m writing this on Sunday, by the way!).  But it’s a good exhausted, and it’s tired with the knowledge that next year’s Lego Expo won’t be nearly so much work or nearly so tiring.

So for you children’s librarians who are intrigued by this idea, here’s what I did to prepare for the Expo:

1. I publicized the event four months before its scheduled date, even before I’d done any planning, to allow kids plenty of time to create their models and spread the word amongst their friends about the event.
2. Part of this publicity was creating a sheet of guidelines that kids and parents could pick up in the children’s room.  On the sheet was the date of the Expo, the times for the age groups, and information about creating your own unique Lego model (don’t just make the model on the front of the box).  I also explicitly stated that there would be “gentle judging,” and that some kids would receive 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place ribbons.  And I explained that there would be a raffle in each age group for a new Lego set.
3. Then it was time to start asking around about potential judges.  My ideal was to have just three judges for the whole day like we did back in those Toy Shop expos, but it didn’t work out that way.  Ultimately, I had nine judges lined up and spread amongst the three age groups (though when the date of the Expo changed due to a sad event, three of those nine had to bow out).  For judges, I wanted a variety of expertise: artists, designers, Lego aficionados, architects, cabinet makers, and a mix of men and women.
4. Then it was time to put out the plea for volunteers for the event.  Since I work in a small town, I wanted to keep the registration for the event completely open, which meant lining up a lot of volunteers to handle any possible attendance scenario.  (If I worked in a larger town, I’d require pre-registration and limit enrollment to keep things manageable.)  The volunteers were a variety of ages, including some fifth grade and up kids who didn’t want to show a model but who wanted to be a part of the event, many teen volunteers (most of whom volunteered for the entire day, wow), and several adult volunteers.
5. Then it was time to create materials for the event.  These included: guidelines and timeline for the judges; judging sheets with space for the judges to make notes; directions for the volunteers so that they could operate independently and not feel they had to ask me what to do; check-in sheets for the volunteers to enter each child’s name and age and whether the child was a resident of the town; tent cards for the kids to identify their models – who made the model, their age, and the name of the model; Certificates of Achievement; raffle tickets and a sign for the raffle bucket.
6. Then I assembled all of these materials into boxes and on clipboards where appropriate, ready to go for the day of the event.  In these boxes I also put multiple Sharpie markers for volunteers to use to write the children’s names on the Certificates of Achievement; ballpoint pens, pencils and a pencil sharpener; name badges for the volunteers and judges; and my own folder with its list of judges and volunteers and notes to myself.
7. Last but not least, I bought snacks to feed the volunteers and judges (cheese and crackers and cookies and juice and seltzer and coffee), brought some small folding tables from home to use for the raffle bucket, tested the sound system, and carefully planned out the layout of the tables in the program room to optimize space usage and traffic flow.

Like I said, a LOT of work.  But now all of these materials are created, and with a little tweaking from lessons learned, useable again next year. 

Tune in tomorrow for a run-down of how the event went!