Building something cool for the New Year

COEUR d'ALENE — Egan Manderscheid twirled near a shower of green tinsel as the final section of a giant Rube Goldberg machine was successfully tested.

"It’s pretty cool," the 8-year-old said, delighting in the confetti cannon blast. "I was like 'Ah!' and jumped backwards. I almost got hit by the confetti."

Egan and his dad, Gabe, of Coeur d'Alene, spent part of their New Year's Eve building the chain-reaction contraption during a free family camp in Gizmo-Coeur d'Alene's Makerspace.

"He likes to build things and create things," Gabe said of his son Thursday afternoon. He explained how their portion of the device worked.

"With a little ball, the (toy) truck will roll forward and knock over dominoes and knock over a marble and roll down."

Surfaces in the Makerspace, located at 806 N. Fourth St., were strewn with Slinky springs, cardboard tubes, beach balls, clamps, strings and an amalgamation of items that could be used as potential pieces for the Rube Goldberg. More than 20 people of all ages contributed ideas and participated in the project, which made the place look like a giant game of "Mousetrap."

"I’m astonished by how much they have in the way of supplies and machines," said Gail Gallaher, 20. "It’s an impressive arsenal of tools for anyone to come in and use."

Gallaher and her brother, Grant, 19, and their mom, Pam, used wooden blocks, beads, a wooden hand, a small xylophone, a canvas bag and a bicycle as they speculated the best way to move along the reaction.

"We honestly just started walking around, seeing what was here, walking through the back rooms, and we noticed, 'Hey, there’s a bicycle,' which we didn’t grab right away," Gail said. "We started playing with a pulley and then (Grant) comes walking back with the bicycle and says, 'Let’s work the bicycle in somehow."

The device began in the rear of the Makerspace and extended about 90 feet to the front of the building, loaded with pulleys, stacked objects, cans, toy airplanes, balloons and much more, all working in sync with the ultimate goal of triggering the confetti cannon and blasting into the new year.

"That’s the quintessential New Year’s thing, and doing it in the most complicated way possible is pretty fun," Grant said.

"Make something new for the new year," Gail added with a smile. "And all together, that was an important part of this is that it was a family thing where we could work together and make memories together."

Their mom stood back and watched for a moment as her kids brainstormed with random objects. It was the family's first time visiting Gizmo, and she said she was feeling "pretty satisfied."

"I think they’re really trying to build a nice community of problem solvers, and I’ve been really impressed to see how many different families are here, and with all ages of kids," Pam said. "I think that’s really important for the Inland Northwest to have that kind of opportunity for these kids."

Gizmo founders Barb Pleason Mueller and Marty Mueller were on hand, assisting the families and refining the Rube Goldberg's intricate parts. Their trusty dog, Hobbes, helped boost morale and supervise.

"The whole idea of building stuff, in order to do it and get kids interested in it, you have to do something that’s unique enough and something that’s challenging enough with an outcome that’s amusing," Barb said. "The challenge of it is that people are working on their own individual spots, and then they have to collaborate with the people who are in front of them and behind them. The ones in back were all built separately and now they’re coming together and figuring out, ‘How is this going to fire off this one?’ and ‘How is this going to fire off the other one?’ so there’s lots of conversations having to happen around, ‘How is this going to work?'"

Info: www.gizmo-cda.org