As his sister left for college in 2021, an idea came into senior Bora Mandic’s mind. It was an idea that would help solve his sister’s loneliness and boredom.
Mandic gathered the pieces and reorganized a kit for a Lego set which he would send to his sister. This action of remaking a Lego set sparked an idea for a nonprofit organization, “Brikshare,” that spread access to Legos. Working to expand the organization’s reach to kids without many resources, he started alone.
In April of 2024, Brikshare went from a solo operation to a team of two. The newcomer, sophomore January Cook, was also very eager to participate in volunteering. Cook was Mandic’s science olympiad partner for astronomy and from there she learned about Brikshare and, with her background in volunteering for a podcast, she became an integral part of the team.
Communicating with libraries and gaining access to facilities to manage these finished sets was difficult without connections or an established reputation. “For the first two [libraries], there was definitely a bit more hesitation. But after that, they all talked about how much they loved it, and then with our third one, [our reputation] really helped,” Mandic said.
Starting up a nonprofit organization such as Brikshare required time and resources. “The first $2000 was not funded by myself. I got $1000 from the Awesome Foundation in Saint Paul, which is this program that small organizations can ask for money [from], and then the other $1000, I raised in my community” Mandic said.
With hopes of getting more people involved, Mandic and Cook expanded Brikshare into a student club at the start of the school year. “We’re trying to build a team here at SPA… Because, at the moment, it’s just me and Bora” Cook said.
The process of creating these kits to loan out to libraries isn’t easy. Mandic and Cook have to count all the pieces in a Lego set and if any are missing, they buy them online. Then they have to wash the pieces, organize them into a set and send it off. It takes about 30 minutes for each set to be fully prepared.
With over hundreds of checkouts, cleaning and preparing these Lego sets have become extremely time consuming tasks. Mandic expressed his goal of having more people help. “Even a club of like five people, if I have 25 sets, then we can each do five and it’s a little bit less [work].”
Brikshare’s original goal was to help as many people without access to Legos or other toys as possible, and as they quickly approach their fourth library, reaching more spaces has become easier. What began as a way to help a sibling, Brikshare has blossomed into an organization working to help others, one brick at a time.
For those with extra Legos on hand, Brikshare welcomes donations.
