Gizmo to celebrate Star Wars Day on North Idaho College campus

COEUR d’ALENE — The Force is with Gizmo-CDA.

The community is invited to a free, all ages Star Wars Day event Saturday, where attendees can see a working, 5-foot AT-AT, build their own lightsabers while supplies last and have more intergalactic fun.

The event is 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Gizmo-CDA on North Idaho College, Hedlund Building, Suite 102.

2024 marks the 10th anniversary of Gizmo-CDA — and the past year has been a challenging one. After a certification snafu forced the maker space to temporarily close its doors on the NIC campus last summer, Gizmo-CDA laid off half of its full-time employees amid a financial shortfall.

Though founders Barb and Marty Mueller retired in 2021, they’ve stepped back in to help the nonprofit navigate choppy waters.

“We’re fully functional again,” Barb Mueller said. “We’ve had a lot of staff changing, but it’s been really exciting to see the new energy and new ideas coming in.”

In the last six months, Gizmo-CDA has increased the availability of low-cost classes that are open to the community, described as “happy hour” classes.

“They give people a taste of Gizmo,” Barb Mueller said.

The temporary closure caused staff to look at the existing space differently.

“A maker space is defined by the people who use it,” Barb Mueller said. “We wanted to create a truly kid-centered space.”

To that end, the nonprofit is planning a youth maker space within Gizmo-CDA, called the Spark Lab. The space will encourage kids to work on projects together and practice teamwork.

As they look back on a decade of Gizmo-CDA and plan for the future, the Muellers have reached out to some of the youths, now adults, who spent time at the maker space. Many are now working in tech-related fields and told the Muellers that Gizmo-CDA helped put them on the path to where they are today.

“They learned resilience,” Barb Mueller said. "They learned to think about an idea, try an idea and if it failed, to try again. That skill has served them well.”

Hearing those stories is why the Muellers are still fighting to keep the maker space open.

“We want to have that open to all kids, to be able to include all kids,” Barb Mueller said.