A WAY TO SPEND THEIR AFTERNOON: Local children participate at the Lego challenge event held at the at the Roddenberry Memorial Public Library.

CAIRO- The Roddenberry Memorial Public Library held a Lego challenge event in their auditorium for locals to gauge interest in an official Lego club for all ages.

Patsy Pallone, the children’s department coordinator, said that they wanted to give local Grady County children an opportunity to enjoy Legos closer to home.

“We want to gauge the interest in having an actual Lego club, or a league, here at the library,” Pallone said. “Grady County has a lot of children who don’t go to public school here, they’re home schooled or go to school in Thomas County or other counties.”

If they aren’t offered the opportunity to enjoy Legos alongside their peers at home or school, then the library can provide an opportunity, according to Pallone.

“We want a way for them to participate in a Lego league or Lego competition while living here in Grady County if they’re at school or at home, they aren’t offered that,” she said.

Pallone said Legos are a great way to get kids to flex their critical thinking skills and have fun as they improve their STEM-related interests.

“Legos are great, they test their critical thinking skills, their ingenuity, their creativity,” she said. “It’s a great STEM activity, anything to do with Legos.”

Pallone said Tuesday’s event was a half hour build challenge, with each participant given the task of building a landmark or building that would come together as one solid community alongside other participants’ finished projects.

“The Lego challenge that we’ve devised for them goes with our summer reading theme, which is All Together Now,” she said. “It focuses on community and kindness.”

At the end of the challenge, the children had finished projects including a pet clinic, a wind turbine, a hydro-electric dam, a fishing house and a city tower.

“All of our creations will be going in a display case in the hallway when we’re done,” Pallone said.

She added that that with the exciting variety of finished constructions by the end of the project, she believed a Lego league would only showcase more creativity from locals.

“I want to see some cool stuff,” Pallone said.

The Lego club, she said, will be open to all ages.

“We’re really excited about it, I hope that it kicks off,” Pallone said.

With brick boxes, which are large boxes of recycled Legos provided to schools and libraries, Pallone said they’ll have plenty of building supplies, but said that she’d always appreciate donations from the community.