Youngsters at one Ridgewood elementary school are getting a chance to build the future thanks to a donation of Lego robotic kits from the Masters of Impossibilities foundation.
JW Perry, founder of Masters of Impossibilities, donated eight Lego robotics kits to P.S. 88 so the school could create their very first Lego Robotics Club where 40 students spend one hour after school on Wednesdays and Thursday learning how to build and program their toy machines.
“It’s teaching children to live their dreams,” Perry said of funding the school’s robotic club. “As parents and as people we are forgetting to teach children to live their dreams. I felt it was my duty to show the children that you can make it. I got tired of seeing our children thrown away.”
The robotics program teaches kids how to build and disassemble a robot using the iconic Lego pieces, code the robot to complete a set of tasks, and enhances their abilities in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
“It’s STEM all the way,” said Robert Woods, a former teacher who is now the education consultant for Lego. “It’s something the kids really need. They need to learn to work together as a group and problem solve. You’re bringing in the math skills, you’re bringing in the science skills, you’re bringing in the technology skills, and that’s what kids need today.”
As an added bonus for students, Perry said that the students in the P.S. 88 Lego Robotics Club will take part in a competition, where he will send the winning pupil and their family to Cape Canaveral in Florida to attend three days of space camp.
Perry wants to use his own personal experiences of being homeless to rising up to found a 501-c not-for-profit organization with an office on Wall Street to inspire children and show them that they, too, can be masters of the impossible, and reach their dreams if they work hard and have a great support system.
“It was just too good for me to just have a large amount of capital and keep it for myself when I see so many young people struggling. That’s why I gave back to the school here. This is home. This is the ground-base.”
P.S. 88 is not the only school that will benefit from Masters of Impossibilities’ generosity. Perry will be funding Lego Robotics programs in P.S. 68, P.S. 71, P.S. 305 and several other schools across the five boroughs.
