New Homes for Old LEGO Bricks
Charlie Jeffers created Pass the Bricks, which gives people the opportunity to donate their LEGO bricks.
Pass the Bricks, www.passthebricks.org
Charlie Jeffers has helped find new homes for thousands of LEGO bricks.
When Charlie Jeffers found out that his friends were throwing out their old LEGO sets, he came up with an idea. Charlie started an organization that sends old LEGO bricks to new homes.
The organization, which is called Pass the Bricks, collects LEGO sets from anyone who is willing to donate them. Then a group of volunteers cleans and sorts the bricks and repacks them into boxes. Pass the Bricks works with several charities to give these newly packaged LEGO sets to families who might not be able to afford LEGO for their kids.
Pass the Bricks, www.passthebricks.org
Pass the Bricks often creates new LEGO sets and provides a photo of what they should look like after they’ve been put together.
Charlie started Pass the Bricks in 2020 with two goals. First, he wanted to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in landfills after it’s thrown away. Second, as a huge LEGO fan himself, he wanted other kids to get a chance to create with them.
“I was so lucky to have access to a toy like that,” Charlie, who is now in high school, told the Washington Post. “I want to give other kids the same opportunity.”
LEGO is usually sold in boxes containing the number of bricks of different sizes, shapes, and colors needed to build something like a model car or building. These are called LEGO sets. The sets donated to Pass the Bricks are often missing some of their bricks. So Charlie and the other volunteers often create new sets out of the bricks they receive. One set the team created is called “Iron Man Goes to the Car Wash.” Whoever receives that set will get to build a mini Iron Man in a car that’s going through a car wash! Every set comes with building instructions.
Pass the Bricks, www.passthebricks.org
Pass the Bricks LEGO sets are creative, with names like “Commissioner Gordon Uses the Bat Signal to Order a Pizza.”
Pass the Bricks has expanded beyond Charlie’s home state of California. According to the organization’s website, its volunteers live in 103 cities around the world and have collected more than 4,500 LEGO sets so far.
