An Update and Something New

A few weeks ago, I let everyone know about how a charity focused on giving LEGO to kids was robbed. You can find that post here. Well I found an update to the initial call and it looks like the community showed up in force which was awesome to see. You can find the update to the story here. I didn’t see a final number on the amount raised, but it was great to see people showing up because they wanted to help. Thank you to all who supported this great cause! You can still support them by going to their site.

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Photo from WKRC

Next up, Paul Wellington from Ohio who was on the show LEGO MASTER’S last year just start a chapter of Pass the Bricks recently. I was not aware of this charity, but you can see more about it in a local news story here. There are chapters of this charity located all around the US and in a few other countries as well. Check out their site to learn more and to see how you can help. Great job Paul!

We Need More Teens Like This One in Texas

Are you sick of seeing all the negative stories in your news feed? Me too. How come we aren’t seeing more like this one? After being a victim of porch thieves and losing a LEGO set that she ordered, Leah decided instead of getting mad about it, that she could help others get LEGO sets to build with. The linked clip from the San Antonio, Texas area highlights her story and the folks that stepped in to help her achieve her goal. Awesome stuff! I hope she continues.

If you’d like to support Leah’s effort, you can donate online through this link to the San Antonio Independent School District. As the article states, please put “Leah’s Lego Kits” in the comments.

If you know of a cool giving opportunity involving the LEGO brick, please pass it along so I can share it on the blog. You can email me at store@bricksforbricks.com or put it in the comments.

Also you can give to The Chalk Guy LEGO Service Project by ordering from the Bricks for Bricks Bricklink Store or our eBay store.

Happy building!

Little Bricks Charity - The Mission Continues

I first mentioned Little Bricks Charity back in November 2021. With the Bricks for Bricks campaign to give funds to the Ronald McDonald House in Northwest Florida still going through the end of June 2023, I thought it would be a good opportunity to highlight others that are using the brick to give to those who could use a boost in life. Before I do that, just a quick plug for the Bricks for Bricks campaign. 15% of the profits from the Bricks for Bricks Bricklink shop will be donated to the Ronald McDonald House in Northwest Florida. No work or extra fees required on your part to participate. You buy retired sets and minifigures and we’ll send funds directly at the end of June 2023. This donation is timely as one of my co-workers at my non-LEGO job is using the House so it’s much appreciated. Okay, that was a long aside. Back to Mr. Cassevah… He is visiting BrickFest Live events around the country this year and making donations along the way. This past weekend, he was in Connecticut. Here are two news clips on the event. Number one and number two.

If you’d like to donate to his cause, you can find out more HERE.

Thanks for supporting and helping to give bricks!

2023 - New Year and New Giving Campaign

Sorry, I’m a little late getting this one posted. We had a last minute pivot to give the Chalkguy LEGO Drive $460 in sets to get them started in 2023. To kick of 2023, we found a local group to support.

From 1 January to 30 June 2023, 15% of the profits from the Bricks for Bricks Bricklink store will go to the Ronald McDonald House of Northwest Florida. We have friends who have been grateful to use the Ronald McDonald House in the past and my family used to make meals at the Ronald McDonald house when we lived in Albuquerque, NM.

So thank you in advance for your purchases that will go to this great organization!

End of 2022 Campaign Results - A Change of Plan

16 Feb 23 update: It took a few weeks for me to post this, but the Chalk Guy crew took a picture for us to use on the site. It has their branding and some of the sets we sent their way. Thank you!

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The good news is that we had $460 from the campaign at the end of 2022 to give from our Bricklink store sales. The plan was to give to Brick Dreams. We supported them before back in 2018 and their goal of giving foster kids bricks to play with while in transition. I reached out to them about sending them funds or LEGO bricks. Sadly, I didn’t hear back. Perhaps their organization no longer exists? Well I appreciate all they did in the past.

I searched for someone to replace Brick Dreams at the last minute. I made sure to pay attention to last post/update dates. It seems like there are numerous groups that used to collect and donate LEGO sets, but many of them are no longer active (the pandemic seems to have taken out a bunch). And then I found the Chalkguy LEGO Service Project.

Some background… This drive was started back in 2012 in Carmel, Indiana (near Indianapolis) by Ben Glenn. Ben was looking for a way to teach his daughters about giving and what started as a lesson turned into an ongoing project. They gave away two sets in 2012 and by 2019 they distributed 1,006 sets. In 2022 they gave away 514 sets. Well with our $460, we got them started off on the right foot with 12 brand new sets ranging from Star Wars to Speed Champions to Creator 3-in-1 to #10280-1: Flower Bouquet. Where do all of these sets go? Ben and team distribute them across his local area to various organizations trying to make life a little better for kids and their families.

If you live near Indianapolis or if you’d like to donate, you can find out how here.

Thanks to everyone who purchased from our Bricklink store in 2022. We look forward to giving more in 2023!

Happy building!

Creations for Charity 2022 - Open Now - 15 October to 30 November

Our campaign for 2021 supported Creations for Charity and while this year we will give to another worthy cause, it doesn’t mean you can’t support more than one. The 2022 Creations for Charity drive started on 15 October 2022. You can see their start post here. If you don’t remember them or you’re new, you can check out what Creations for Charity is about here. Most importantly, you can visit their shop to purchase cool custom MOCs and minifigures. Last year they raised over $35,000 to give to kids at 15 different locations across 7 countries. It would be great to see them expand that further this year.

Also, it’s not too late to donate a MOC. There’s a link on the shop page if you want to do that.

If nothing in the shop looks enticing, you can donate cash as well through their PayPal link.

Lastly, stay tuned for the 24-hour live stream hosted by Beyond the Brick.

Happy building and thanks for giving!.

A new Giving Campaign Starts - 1 June to 31 December 2022 - Brick Dreams

If you’ve followed Bricks for Bricks for a while or have spent some time on our site, you’ll see that we had campaigns for Brick Dreams in 2017 and 2018. Well after a few years, I looked and they are still at their awesome work. So why not send some bricks their way so they can use them to help others?

In case you didn’t click the link above, Brick Dreams was founded in 2012 with a goal of collecting used bricks and giving them to kids in need. They made kits for kids in foster homes and those who get moved around by Child Protective Services a lot. They are still doing it today.

From 1 June 2022 until 31 December 2022, 15% of the profits from sales at Bricks for Bricks will go towards Brick Dreams. Instead of sending them three boxes of new Bricks, let’s see if we can send them 30 or 50 or 100…

By the way, you can support them directly too if you want. Go to their site here to see how you can give bricks or cash to support their efforts.

Thank you for support! Happy building!

More to Give! Another Campaign Wraps up

We did it and thank you! The most recent campaign closed that we ran from 1 December 2021 to 31 May 2022. 15% of our profits went to the Doolittle Institute which runs FIRST® LEGO® League programs throughout northwest Florida. That final number came out to be…

$848

Thank you so much for helping to support STEM education in Florida. Our donation should help them support at least three full teams to include equipping them with robots, covering registration fees, and other costs involved.

Happy building!

Next Giving Drive - 1 December 2021 to 31 May 2022 - FIRST® Programs

Hopefully you’ve heard of the FIRST® LEGO® League. If you haven’t, the website says:

FIRST® LEGO® League introduces science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to children ages 4-16* through fun, exciting hands-on learning. Participants gain real-world problem solving experience through a guided, global robotics program, helping today's students and teachers build a better future together.

Our three divisions inspire youth to experiment and grow their critical thinking, coding, and design skills through hands-on STEM learning and robotics.

To bring it a bit more local this time, the current drive will collect funds for my local FIRST® LEGO® League program in northwest Florida. It is run through the Doolittle Institute here locally. What do they need? Here’s what they say:

$25 = One Robot Motor

$50 = Robot Accessories

$100 = Support for their STEM Camp

$250 = Support for a FIRST Team

I’m a bit late getting this up so I’ll reach back to the sales starting 1 December 2021 and we’ll go through the end of May 2022. So let’s see how many full teams we can support!

Thanks for helping to encourage kids!

Happy building!

Biggest Give yet from Bricks for Bricks!

We were able to give $928 to Creations for Charity through our giving campaign that started in August and ended in November. Thanks to everyone who made purchases from our store so we could be so generous to a great cause!

According to the Creations for Charity site, this year they raised over $35,000! This is awesome! Thank you to everyone who donated whether it was through buying from the site, supporting the Beyond the Brick 24-Hour live stream, or making a purchase from Bricks for Bricks at our Bricklink.com store.

We will announce our next campaign soon. In the meantime, happy building!