Charlie Jeffers has been playing with LEGO since he was 4 or 5 and credits one of the most famous of all toys for helping him learn math and engineering concepts, and how to be focused, flexible, and creative.
It occurred to him that many kids don’t have access to play tools like LEGO, and their emotional and cognitive development suffers as a result.
The senior at Redwood High School in Marin County, California, realized that by getting LEGO into the hands of kids who can’t afford the name-brand toys, he can also avoid them ending up in landfills.
He launched Pass the Bricks in 2020 to address both of these issues. He and his volunteer-based team repurpose used LEGO bricks into new original sets for kids in marginalized communities who don’t know about them or can’t afford them.
Pass the Bricks has an open model program template with four key steps: collect used LEGO bricks, sanitize and sort them, create new sets with the used bricks, and deliver the sets to kids in marginalized communities.
The team distributes the sets to kids in need directly or through partnerships with 11 various nonprofit organizations.
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One in particular that’s flourishing is Jeffers’ ongoing relationship with multiple chapters of the Boys and Girls Club of America. As part of these ongoing relationships, Pass the Bricks delivers a specific number of sets every month (i.e., 50 sets per month to Boys and Girls Club in San Francisco), which the nonprofit can include in its larger deliveries to kids and families in need.
To date, the organization has delivered over 3,055 sets to kids in need, and people immediately see the value in it.
“We sent our Lego bricks to Ecuador with my son’s middle school some years back. I love to think of kids there playing with them,” said Paola, a neighbor of Jeffers who contributed to the project.
Some of his new sets are quite innovative, like the “Superman Would Like Just One Day Off” set, featuring a grumpy Clark Kent in bed with his suit hanging in the closet, or the “Droid Escape Pod,” which is a faithful representation of the spacecraft used by R2-D2 in the opening scenes of the first Star Wars Film.
With over 20 volunteers, Jeffers’ has expanded the program in their communities in San Francisco, Marin County, Portland, Austin, DC, Richmond, and Los Angeles, and is now looking to scale the program further to create as much impact as possible.
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He’s created an easy-to-use program template with clear instructions on how to facilitate the program out of one’s home. His ultimate goal is widespread behavior change so that every LEGO brick has a second life and that as many kids as possible get access to this incredible play tool.
Anyone looking to donate their old LEGO should contact Charlie on his website.
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