Join the Club: Lego Club
Cutter Campbell, 7, pieces together his submarine as part of an underwater base he built during a Lego Club meeting at the Marble Falls Public Library. Staff photos by Caden Senn.
Young Lego builders held their breath in anticipation as they dropped a cookie 3 feet from table to floor at the Marble Falls Public Library. They were testing a new Lego build of their own creation that involved a tower of assorted bricks around a grouping of miniature tires and nets—and a single Chips Ahoy cookie. The chocolate chip cookie landed unscathed atop the carefully crafted build. Success.
“I love the crazy that comes out,” said Marble Falls children’s librarian Kate Bravo, who organizes monthly Lego Club meetings around themed building challenges.
From 4-5:30 p.m. every second Thursday of the month at the library, the Lego Club gives kids a creative space to design and build their own plastic-brick masterpieces with a twist. The recent cookie drop was one of many challenges that members have taken on since the club’s founding last year.
Bravo created the club in January 2025 after hearing parents talk about other Lego clubs in the Highland Lakes. She has helped form several clubs at the Marble Falls library as part of its goal to develop new community groups.
Word of the club spread after the first meeting. Now, as many as 30 enthusiasts show up at peak times of the year.
Attendance aside, Bravo knew when she started the club she would need one thing above all others: Lego bricks. Of course, creative builds call for an abundance of Lego pieces.
Bravo immediately began asking community members for Lego donations. She envisioned having enough for every club member to soar creatively. With library-sourced bricks, parents wouldn’t need to buy any, so kids of all family income levels could join the club and explore to their heart’s content.
“That’s one of the rules of the Lego Club: Don’t bring your own Legos,” Bravo said. “We don’t want to deal with the heartache of getting them all mixed together and lost.”
At each meeting, Bravo announces a new challenge that members can complete, regardless of age. Bravo goes the extra mile to foster a fun environment for everyone.
The club is primarily geared toward elementary and middle school ages, but all young people are welcome. Parents and supervisory adults are asked to remain spectators.
At the end of each meeting, club members disassemble their builds and clean up—after taking numerous photos, of course. Builders have asked to keep their projects, but Bravo holds steadfast on teaching the importance of process over product.
“I like the impermanence of it,” she said. “Just so (the kids) don’t get so fixated on the product. I always like the process more.”
Part of the challenge for each build are time management and concentration. Limiting phone use, for example, helps keep meetings stress-free.
“Somebody had a phone once, and they were trying to follow build instructions from the Lego website,” Bravo said. “That ended in tears.”
The February meeting challenge was to design a landing platform to catch a cookie dropped from a tabletop. Silas Weaver, 10, used tires and netting to cushion the fall.
Siblings Kaylen, Tiffany, and Shane Thompson enclosed a Lego baseplate with walls to catch the cookie and any crumbs it produced on impact.
“I like doing the challenges,” 12-year-old Kaylen said.
Lego challenges help guide those who are interested, but members are welcome to free-build.
First-timer Francisco Silva, 6, and club veteran Cutter Campbell, 7, were among the members who worked on their own non-cookie-related builds.
Francisco built trucks and cars, while Cutter pieced together an underwater base with a submarine.
Francisco’s mother, Ana Silva, had seen a poster for the club at the library and decided to take her children to the meeting.
“I thought to myself, ‘They love Legos, let’s go,’” Silva said. “It was nice to see the other kiddos doing the same thing, but not the same thing. They’re really creative.”
For many young buildmasters, the Lego Club has become a community of like-minded individuals and friends. Several members are homeschooled, so meetings are an opportunity to make new friends.
“Different people come in that didn’t know each other, but they’ve become friends working on a project together,” Bravo said. “We want (members) to find something together.”
Looking ahead, Bravo hopes to see the club meet more than once a month and for friendships to continue to grow. And though she enjoys leading the club, she is ready to step back and let parent volunteers passionate about Lego take the lead.
The Lego Club meets from 4-5:30 p.m. every second Thursday of the month at the Marble Falls Public Library, 101 Main St. Kids of all ages are welcome and encouraged to join. For more information, visit marblefallslibrary.org.