Youths show off Lego skills

PHOTO BY SETH WEBER This Lego spaceship, created by Dace Tilse, 6, won a trophy in the age 4-6 group during the Lego contest at Tiffin-Seneca Public Library Saturday afternoon. PHOTO BY SETH WEBER This desert island scene was created by David Wyatt, 10, for the Lego contest at Tiffin-Seneca Public Library. PHOTO BY SETH WEBER David Wyatt (center), 10, tells Junior Library Manager Connie Cole about his island scene during the Lego contest at Tiffin-Seneca Public Library. Local children showed off their Lego building skills at Tiffin-Seneca Public Library Saturday afternoon during its annual Lego contest. About a dozen creations were displayed in the library's Frost Kalnow Room, where anyone at the library could vote on the best creation within age groups of 4-6, 7-9 and 10-12. Creations ranged from Star Wars-inspired spaceships to a scene of a marooned seaman. The contest is part of the library's monthly Lego program, in which they give children the opportunity to play with boxes of Lego bricks, Junior Library Manager Connie Cole said. The library gets its Lego bricks through grants and donations, Cole said. She said they have four bins of Duplo bricks for younger children and eight bins of regular Lego bricks. Their latest donated sets were a Duplo zoo and two Minecraft sets. A Christmas train also was donated, but has yet to arrive, she said. When new sets come to the library, Cole said kids get the opportunity to build them on Saturdays, but they are then taken apart to become tools of their imagination. Each month presents a different challenge for children, Cole said. For example, next month's Lego day will ask kids to build their best car. "There's always a challenge, but they can build whatever they like," she said. Building Lego models isn't just about fun for kids, Cole said, but also provides an educational opportunity, which is why the program has become a mainstay. "There's so many things they can learn from it. The thinking, the math," she said. David Wyatt, 10, originally had an idea of recreating the Washington Crossing the Delaware painting, but instead settled on a scene of a man stuck on a desert island. Trisha Daniel brought Wyatt and her children Vincent Daniel, 10, and Daphne Daniel, 8, to the contest, as they're familiar with the library's Lego program. "We come to Lego Saturdays a lot, so we came to the Lego contest," she said. Winners of the contest were Dace Tilse, 6, for his spaceship, Vincent Daniel for his transformer and car crash scene and Daphne Daniel for her house. The rest of the children who participated were given ribbons. The monthly Lego program is 1-3 p.m. the first Saturday every month in the junior library. For more information, call (419) 447-3751.