Matthew Burnette, Staff Writer

Young brick builders and Lego aficionados gathered around the tables in the children’s section of the Coffee County Manchester Public Library on Nov. 26 for the monthly gathering of the library’s Lego League.

Each month, participants are given a challenge by Youth Services Librarian and Event Coordinator Daphanie Gragg. This month’s challenge was to build something that you would find at Thanksgiving and next month will be a Christmas challenge.

“I actually have little creatures and different Christmas characters that they can build, and as long as there’s not too many kids here, they can take them home with them,” says Gragg, a library employee for three years.

The Lego League is open to all ages with additional challenges being specifically catered to the youngest children.

“Even the babies that come with their siblings, we have big blocks for them, and we have them sort by color or we tell them to build something as tall as they are,” Gragg explained. “They just absolutely love it.”

Once everyone finishes their project, the participants get to vote for a first, second and third place. The three winners’ pieces are then placed in a curio cabinet to display.

“It gives the kids a sense of pride,” says Gragg. “They can come in here and be like ‘Hey! I built that!’ and they really look forward to it.”

Gragg says the crowd at the event can range from sixteen to sixty kids. The event is broken up into two sessions to accommodate large groups.

In addition to the sense of pride from seeing their work displayed, Gragg says she hopes the participants leave with an important life skill.

“It’s a way for kids to come together and work together and learn how to do teamwork,” she says. “A lot of them are homeschoolers at the one o’clock session.”

The Lego League supplies all come from sponsorships and donations which Gragg explained are down this year.

“A lot of it comes out of my own pocket, and next year I’m going to have to make changes because it’s starting to add up, so, we really need donations,” she says. “Everything I do here is free to the public. We don’t charge for anything and that’s how we like it.”

Though monetary donations would be the most beneficial to the youth services at the library, other items are appreciated as well.

“Somebody just donated some more characters that were handicapped, so I really love that because now they’ve got people that are in wheelchairs or people with walkers and things like that,” Gragg remarked. “Anything like that would be cool to have a donation for.”

Gragg also heads the library’s teen volunteer program where local teenagers can come and help with the Summer Reading Program as well as other tasks.

“I teach them how to be a Junior Librarian, so they can help me put up books, they can help me find books, they can search the card catalog, they know how to prep the shelves and everything like that,” says Gragg.

The volunteers also help with cleaning, organizing and decorating for holidays which Gragg says is a big help to her.

“It’s hard to do it by yourself,” Gragg explained. “We have staff, but they’re doing other things. All the events and decorations I pretty much do back here, but the girls do help me when they can when they’re not on the desk. My volunteers are my “It Team.””

The calendar of events for the library can be found on their website and the library’s Facebook page.