Forget about those stressful, dreary, emails that ask you to fork over money for a relative or family friend; Legomania puts the fun in fundraising.
Legomania is an event for band where the community comes together and pays to compete in different LEGO-oriented events in hopes of taking home a gold medal. The fundraiser has been continuously gaining people for the last seven years for the Northview Band Boosters.
Legomania will include multiple events such as speed building,, a showcase of community builds, and tables set up for free building. Actual LEGO Masters, from the television show LEGO Masters, will be attending for an open-question segment as well. Food and other snacks for everyone to munch on while playing with LEGO will be provided.
Legomania Coordinator Regan Johnson has been running Legomania for four years. She fell in love with the event while volunteering as a mom of a student in a band. The event has drawn so much popularity but ultimately was going to end if Johnson didn’t step up.
“[Legomania is] an amazing community event, bringing all ages of people together,” Johnson said. “There was a portion of time where the [previous] coordinator wanted out, and it wasn’t going to happen. That made me sad. I was like, ‘we can’t just let this event die out.’ It was just more of an ‘I’ll do it. Let’s just get it done.’”
Johnson makes it her goal to include anyone and everyone in the activities Legomania offers, to see bright smiles and just all around joy the event brings.
“I love seeing the smiles, the laughter, all the colors and the noise and just happy people. It’s a time where we can come together in all the craziness in this world.” Johnson said. “We can laugh and play and build things and sit and have a hotdog together. It’s just a really good time for just our community and our outside people to come in and see that Northview is an awesome place to be.”
This will be the band boosters seventh Legomania. Each year, the event and its volunteers have seen an uptick in the amount of attendees. Last year they had around 1,400 people and this year they expect a little bit more. With the consistent increase in people comes smaller issues within the planning.
“There’s always little things, making sure you have enough hot dogs to feed everybody, or enough popcorn to sell, ” said Johnson. “We’re starting to worry about breaking code, how many people can we have in here, and we didn’t want Deputy Allen showing up on our doorstep.”
To help combat the number of hungry mouths, empty bellies and tired parents, numerous vendors, including Biggby, will be offering free coffee and coupons.
The increase of community members is a good problem to have. Johnson is proud of the popularity of Legomania gained within the last seven years. The gain in people has made Johnson feel prepared and excited for the event this year.
“This year, we’re not worried about anything. We’re super confident and excited about everything going on.” Johnson said. “We just want to make sure that people coming in enjoy themselves and everything goes smoothly.”
Senior Lucas Johnson has been volunteering for Legomania for the last four years. You can find Lucas in the lunchroom kitchen this year, serving hot dogs, chips and other tasty treats if he’s not helping his mom out with other miscellaneous tasks. The experience enlightens him with overwhelmingly fun and exciting things for him.
“[I love] seeing all the little kids just having their faces go wide open with a nice smile. It’s nice to see the joy on people’s faces when they see all these different LEGO,” said Lucas. “It brings joy to myself when I see other people happy.”
Senior Jonathan Popp started helping out with Legomania last year. Previously, you may have known him as Emmet from the LEGO Movie. There are not only competitive builders and LEGO maniacs, there will also be special guests attending as well.
“I got to put on the costume and walk around and greet people and was interviewed by the news, it was cool.” Popp said.
Along with many of the other volunteers and helpers, Popp’s passion for volunteering comes from the sheer joy he receives helping at Legomania being surrounded by so many smiling faces and, of course, LEGO.
“Getting to see everyone come together for one event is really cool,” said Popp. “I get to hang out with my friends, in addition to helping out and stuff.”
Popp believes that even if someone doesn’t enjoy LEGO, it ultimately helps out the band boosters and therefore helps out who, the band.
Legomania will be held on Saturday, March 9, 2024 from 2-8pm, in the Northview High School Cafeteria. Guests can enter through the main front doors.
