Building the future of Charlestown, one Lego brick at a time!

Brick Building Clinic to be held June 20, 2023 from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. at Charlestown Middle School.

The City of Charlestown is pleased to announce a free Brick Building Clinic to be held on Tuesday, June 20 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Charlestown Middle School. Charlestown residents and Greater Clark County School students, ages 8 to 12-years-old, can register for the build day.

The event was inspired by a letter sent to Mayor Treva Hodges from Nehemiah, a student and resident of Charlestown. The letter pitched the idea of building a Lego Park in the City of Charlestown because of young people’s interest in Legos. Accompanied by a drawing of the park’s design, Nehemiah’s letter inspired City staff to explore bringing a Lego event to our youth.

“I’m excited to bring Nehemiah’s dream to life by hosting this camp,” said Mayor Treva Hodges. “Expanding our Parks programming options to include athletic, artistic, and creative options has been a top priority for us the last three years and this collaboration with Speed School, the Greater Clark Education Foundation, and Core Construction adds to our growing list of innovative youth experiences. It’s also a chance to foster civic engagement early among our youngest residents. Among these young builders are our future leaders and builders. I can’t think of a better way to help them feel connected to our home community.”

Builders will break into 30, four-person teams, to build their vision of Charlestown. With the assistance of volunteers from the Louisville J.B. Speed School of Engineering, Maker13, and Core Construction, builds will include creating a school, police station, fire department, parks, restaurants, the city square, utility buildings and more. Special Charlestown touches will include creating a train station and a Christmas theme.

“We are excited to partner with the City of Charlestown and others to work with the youth of Charlestown and share how vital engineering is to their future communities,” said Emmanuel Collins, dean of Speed School of Engineering. “Our students, staff and alumni love these outreach opportunities to inspire future engineers.”

By the end of the clinic, the Lego creations will come together to organize the layout of the city. The concept and planning of the city is part of the discussion piece with volunteers.

Creative thinking, planning, problem solving, concepts, and team building will be many of the learning tools during the build. More novice builders will construct kits before transitioning to free builds while more experienced Lego builders will design buildings from scratch with strategic planning involved.

The partnership of the event includes the J.B. School of Engineering, Core Construction, Maker13, and the Greater Clark Educational Foundation.

Limited to 120 students, the participants must be Greater Clark County School students or reside in Charlestown. Breakfast will be provided by Copper Kettle, and lunch provided by Zaxby’s.