10/14/2026
Thank you Hart County News-Herald for highlighting our LEGO Club with a wonderful feature article!
𝗡𝗼 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 - 𝘼𝙩 𝙇𝙚𝙜𝙤 𝘾𝙡𝙪𝙗, 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙜 𝙗𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙘𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙢𝙖𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙙.
Mary Beth Sallee
Managing Editor
There are no instruction books at Lego Club, no step-by-step diagrams, and no picture on the front of a box showing what the finished product is supposed to look like. Instead, once a month at the Hart County Public Library, club leader Katie Bowers gives a room full of young builders a challenge, plenty of Lego bricks, and the freedom to figure out the rest.
What happens next can be unpredictable.
A pile of bricks might become a bridge strong enough to hold a stack of canned goods, a maze designed to send a rubber ball from one end of a table to the other, or a boat headed for a race across a tub of water.
That ability to take a handful of Lego bricks and see something that does not exist yet is exactly what first gave Bowers the idea for the club.
“My son has always loved Lego,” Bowers said. “He is severely dyslexic but hand the kid some Legos and a few minutes later he has a medieval castle or a pirate ship designed without any directions.”
As Bowers talked with other homeschool moms, she realized she was seeing a common thread. Some children seemed to come alive when they could work with their hands, solve a problem, and create something on their own. With a background in design, Bowers wanted to offer that kind of creative opportunity to other children in the community, while also giving them something increasingly difficult to find: time away from a screen.
“Today, so many kids are spending hours on devices,” she said. “That has to be changing their brains in ways we don’t even know about yet. Even if for only an hour a month, I wanted to encourage kids to be creative, solve problems, design, and be proud of their handmade creation.”
Ironically, the Lego Club that Bowers first envisioned would have involved considerably more technology. She initially hoped to use Lego as a way to introduce computer programming and robotics, but the club did not have the equipment or computers needed. Bowers reached out to several large businesses, including Lego, seeking donations, but no one agreed to fund the program. Three years later, she considers that a blessing in disguise.
“Kids have their hands, Legos, and are using their incredible minds so much more with less of the technology,” Bowers said. “It’s wonderful to look around the room and see the kids working so hard and carrying huge smiles on their faces.”
Without laptops commanding their attention, the children began doing something else. They talked. They compared ideas, worked through problems together, formed friendships, and celebrated one another’s successes. Parents who stayed during the meetings began forming friendships of their own.
“Great friendships have been discovered by both the kids and the parents who choose to stay during the club,” Bowers said. “I believe all of that would have been missed if we were all staring at laptops programming Lego creations.”
This fall marked the beginning of Lego Club’s third year. Bowers said the same core group of children continues to faithfully return each month, eager to see what challenge awaits them.
Those challenges may look like play from across the room, but there is plenty happening between the first brick and the finished creation. The children are communicating, planning, experimenting with design and function, working through structural problems, and, quite often, discovering that their first idea is not going to work quite the way they imagined.
“Every month these kids blow me away at how creative and smart they are when interpreting the monthly design challenge,” Bowers said. “And I love seeing the kids working together even when it’s not a group challenge. One kid may be having issues getting their design to do what they want, and the other kids come along beside them to give ideas and encouragement to help solve the problem.”
Some of the club’s best challenges have taken that trial-and-error approach to another level. During one meeting, the children learned about different types of bridges and how they carry weight before designing bridges of their own. Once construction was complete, Bowers began adding canned goods to see how much weight each bridge could withstand.
About 20 children participated that night, and as more cans were added, the room became less like a quiet library and more like the sidelines of a sporting event.
“Every single bridge carried the weight and didn’t break!” Bowers said. “We were all cheering everyone on as I added more and more cans of weight.”
A boat-building challenge last year brought even more excitement. The children had to design two boats, one to float and another for speed. Bowers filled several tubs with water dyed blue and brought in a fan, giving the builders a place to put their creations through a real test.
The process quickly became one of build, test, adjust, and try again. Children ran to the tubs to see whether their boats would float, checked for water coming aboard, and then hurried back to their seats to make changes before another attempt. Once the adjustments were finished, the boats lined up for a race powered by the fan.
“It was great,” Bowers said. “We were all yelling and cheering and laughing watching the boats capsize and crash into each other. Again, I’m grateful to the library for inviting us back after that.”
Just last month, another one of Bowers’ favorite challenges was brought forth, one that required the children to think beyond their own creations. Each builder was asked to construct a maze for a rubber ball, but there was a catch: the maze had to attach to the one designed by the child next to them. Each participant had an individual problem to solve, but the finished product would only work if the entire table worked together.
“September’s was probably one of my favorite builds because the kids took the challenge and came up with things I would have never thought of,” Bowers said. “So the whole table of kids had to do an individual design but work as a group for the overall design to work out. It was amazing to see these designs!”
The completed mazes will remain on display at the Hart County Public Library through the end of October, giving visitors a chance to see just how differently a group of children can interpret the same set of instructions.
The building does not always stop with Lego creations, either. When time permits, the children end the meeting by showing the group what they made.
“Even reluctant public speakers are so pleased with their design they gladly show it off,” she said. “I think that’s an important muscle to grow.”
After three years of challenges, experiments, successes, spectacular boat crashes, and plenty of Lego bricks, the club has also built something that cannot be put on display in the library. Last year, one of the club’s regular members was hospitalized. During a meeting, the group created an ongoing inside joke out of Legos and sent photographs to his mother.
“I hope it brought a little joy and let him know we were thinking of him,” Bowers said. “We really are a community.”
Bowers credits the Hart County Public Library with giving that community a place to grow and with continuing to support the club, even when the enthusiasm occasionally stretches the traditional definition of “library voices.”
“Sometimes I know we get too loud and stay too late, but the library staff is always so supportive,” Bowers said.
Lego Club meets from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the last Tuesday of each month in the community room at the Hart County Public Library. There is no fee, no paperwork, and no formal membership process. Lego bricks and everything else needed for the challenges are provided, and participants are asked not to bring their own from home.
The group is primarily made up of upper elementary through early high school students, although there is no age restriction, and it is open to both public and homeschool children. Families can sign up for the Hart County Public Library newsletter and follow its page for current information.
“Just show up with a good attitude and ready to get creative!” Bowers said. “We would love to have you.”
At Lego Club, just remember: no experience is necessary, no perfect creation is expected, and no instructions are required.
Hart County Public Library
