The trio invested over 400 hours between research, design, procuring the parts, and of course the build itself. Measuring 4 feet by 6 feet, it contains an estimated 30,000 LEGO pieces. The model was unveiled as the center anchor point for the exhibit, “Taken From Their Families …” in May, which is Asian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month. After that first meeting, only Kenny and two other members of the club, Johannes van Galen and Nick McConnell, agreed to proceed with the build. A number of folks joined the introductory Zoom call, but after hearing the scope of what was being requested, it was clear that this was a long duration project that would take months to complete. The problem? Hundreds of 4th graders tour Angel Island every year – How do you engage them on very painful and hard to understand subject matter like internment? Well, the folks from the California State Park system and the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, which runs the museum there, thought that a LEGO model of the site as it existed during WWII might help bridge that gap.ĪIISF reached out to the local LEGO club in the Bay Area in August of 2021 to see if anyone might be interested in volunteering for a project. Remember how we mentioned 4th graders earlier? Well, learning about California history is a pillar of the 4th grade curriculum here in the Golden State and that is what led to this particular project. How to educate children about the history? For the first wave of those who were incarcerated, Angel Island was used as the processing center before they were sent off to one of the infamous internment camps across the US, like Manzanar, Tule Lake, or Heart Mountain. This included US citizens who were officially reclassified as enemies of the state purely based upon their heritage. Roosevelt, rounded up thousands of US citizens and put them into internment camps for the duration of the war simply because of their Japanese ancestry. Many people are still unaware that following Pearl Harbor, the US Government, on the orders of President Franklin D. When Japan attacked the US Naval base at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, Angel Island took on an entirely new role during the early stages of the war, but one that was unfortunately still in line with its original anti-Asian roots. It wasn’t a place for, Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses… It was more like, Nope, talk to the hand. In reality it was established specifically for the purpose of excluding immigration for those of Asian descent and Chinese immigrants in particular.
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Ask them about Angel Island, however, and you’ll probably get a confused look and a shake of the head.Īlthough Angel Island was often called, “The Ellis Island of the West” in the early 1900s, it was anything but welcoming. Īsk your average 4th grader if they have ever heard of Ellis Island and they can probably tell you at least something about the well-known narrative surrounding immigration and the United States. The subject matter revolves around a troubling chapter in American history and a small bit of rock and scrub brush in the middle of San Francisco Bay called Angel Island.
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However, he recently finished a project that he says has been the most difficult and meaningful project he has ever been a part of. Over the holiday season he builds a 120 square foot display in his garage that often draws 300+ people a day, he worked on the Mythbusters’ Giant LEGO Ball episode (#117), he has scale models of farm equipment in the permanent collection of a local museum, and in January of 2020 he finished second in a competition for one of LEGOLand’s coveted LEGO Master Model Builder positions, of which there are only 13 in all of North America. That approach seems to have worked quite well for him for a long time now. “When I get a new kit I usually look at it in terms of pure raw material rather than whatever is shown on the box”, he says with a smile radiating the possibilities. When I get a new kit I usually look at it in terms of pure raw material rather than whatever is shown on the box Yes, for you LEGO Movie fans, Kenny is a Master Builder. In fact, he rarely ever builds anything from a kit, instead building highly complex and detailed models entirely from his imagination. For Kenny however, it goes a bit beyond just opening a box and following the instruction book. Th 11 max base link.Like many of the folks in open source, the LF’s Kenny Paul is a huge fan of building things out of LEGO.