Lego Club unleashes creativity

By Marlon Madden

Executive member of the Lego Club of Barbados Dave Rafikh is hoping to give more children the opportunity to express their creativity and enhance their engineering skills through the building of objects using Lego pieces.

Noting that it was a way to assist with skills development, Rafikh told Barbados TODAY that he intends to get more children involved as the club kicks into high gear.

“Our aim is to take it to the secondary and primary schools and get the children involved in Lego,” he said.

Declaring that the club was now “fully back”, Rafikh said they were able to restart in the latter part of last year and the aim was to make the club as active as its counterpart in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Lego Club of Barbados was started in 2018, but had to stop in 2020, when the island started to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It currently has about 17 active members, down from about 30 when it first started.

“We don’t have any registered members because of the interruption we had. What we are doing right now is trying to streamline things and try to meet at least once a month,” he said.

The club currently meets at Christie’s conference room at the Barbados Light & Power Company Limited on Bay Street, St Michael.

He said the club catered to all levels from amateurs to experts. At each meeting, attendees are given different projects on which to work.

“They also have competitions among themselves. It is to get them to be interactive and get the creativity out of them,” said Rafikh.

Over the weekend the Lego Club of Barbados showcased one of their latest projects – a map of Barbados featuring the island’s 11 national heroes, built from special Lego pieces.

The eight feet by seven feet mosaic was made from 36 288 Lego bricks on 63 plates. It is to be framed and presented to the Government in the coming days, just in time for National Heroes Day.

The first project was the creation of the Barbados Coat of Arms, which was done for Independence Day last year, using 18 000 Lego pieces. The finished product is hanging in the Parliament building.

Rafikh told Barbados TODAY that after completing that project, Prime Minister Mia Mottley threw out a challenge for the club to do another.

He said that by December they had agreed to do something for National Heroes Day and they wanted it to be bigger than the approximately four feet by five feet Coat of Arms.

“It was a unanimous decision to do the Barbados map with the 11 national heroes,” he said.

“The kids of the club and the parents worked tirelessly to get this project up and running and we want to deliver it for April 28, National Heroes Day,” he said.

Rafikh said about 12 children in total worked on the project only on weekends for about six weeks, from the beginning of March. 

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb