Lego® Night with Littles: Milwaukee hosts Big Brothers Big Sisters!
For the 4th year in a row, our Milwaukee team hosted kids from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Milwaukee for Lego® Night, an opportunity for kids to learn about careers in construction while building Lego® Towers! Big Brothers Big Sisters is a mentorship organization that pairs adults, “Bigs,” with kids, “Littles”. Bigs are mentors and friends to youth and spend time hanging out, playing games, and attending events! Emily Ballweg and Charles Green are project managers in Milwaukee and Bigs in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. “The biggest impact we can have on our community is by showing up for and supporting the young people in it,” Emily said. “The Big Brothers Big Sisters program does a great job of creating ‘matches’ that give kids another person in their life who they can rely on and who helps give them a new perspective. I matched with my little seven years ago, and it's been one of the most impactful relationships in my life!”
Charles and Emily organized the Lego® Night event to show Littles the many avenues of careers in construction in a fun and engaging environment. Mortenson team members volunteered to talk about their jobs in construction, creating a great opportunity for kids to learn about the wide range of careers and paths available within the industry. Kids are exposed to carpentry, engineering, project management, estimating, and using new technologies like virtual reality to design projects.
On Lego® Night this year, after learning about the industry, the group jumped into building their Lego® towers! They had a blast building creative Lego® structures and even had an Owner Change Order, which included adding a green roof! After building, they named their Lego® structures and presented them to the rest of the group. In the end, the Littles took home the Lego® kits so they can keep up their building skills at home. Our team members really enjoyed spending the evening with the kids; reflecting on the event, Charles said, “Together, we inspired the next generation of builders by introducing many ways to be a builder.”