When Rocco Grassi was young, he built Legos to bond with his dad.

Now a first-year psychology and pre-med major, Grassi was able to recapture some of the memories he shared with his father during his time home from winter break and at the FAB Lego Building Night Tuesday.

“When I was home for winter break, I got one of the flower Lego sets and built it together with my father and it was really cool because I would always build stuff with him when I was younger,” Grassi said. “It’s nice that it’s still with me to this day, to want to build things with him.”

Sydney Shoaf, a member of FAB and the organizer of the Lego Building Night, said that she wanted to try organizing a Lego building night to help people come together and make new friends, while also helping to relieve their stress from school.

“I really wanted to do something different and try a Lego building night to help people express themselves creatively and make some new friends,” Shoaf said. “I know that building with Legos is not only a way to express yourself creatively, but also a huge stress reliever by sitting down and forcing yourself to focus on something.”

The event also brought back memories for Quintin Heltzer, a freshman Russian major, who was working on building a small forklift out of Legos.

“I’ve been playing with Legos since I was eight or nine years old,” Heltzer said. “Over the years, I’ve probably had a good thousand dollars worth of Legos. I’ve gotten rid of and sold a lot of things like that.”

Heltzer also talked about discovering his love for Legos when he went to work with his uncle.

“My uncle told me if I behaved he would take me to a store and buy me a toy,” he said. “I sat through a meeting at his work and didn’t make a single noise, so he took me to a store and bought me a Lego set.”

The Lego building night also brought back some fond memories for Adder Moore, a freshman theater major, who said that they really enjoyed building Legos with their brother throughout their childhood.

“Throughout my childhood, my brother and I really liked Legos,” they said. “He was always a huge Lego fan, so he and I would build Legos all the time. That’s something I’ve always cherished between the two of us and even now, we still build Legos together.”

Adder continued to talk about how they believe building Legos is a great creative outlet.

“I think a creative outlet is always super important for anything you do,” they said. “Having any creative hobby is good, whether that be building Legos, drawing, or even coloring. I really like it because it stems from your imagination and causes you to build things physically with your hands.”

Grassi believes that building Legos is a great stress reliever too, and he said he enjoys the chance to use your imagination and unleash your inner child.

“It’s really important to find ways to bring you joy that maybe you used to do when you were younger,” Grassi said. “You know, to bring out your inner child, especially through Legos. It’s cool to be able to do that nowadays.”

Molly Hoffer is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].