KIDS CREATE WITH ‘CARDBOARD CHALLENGE’

Kids at the Vacaville Neighborhood Boys and Girls Club got creative with leftover cardboard this week.
Used cardboard boxes were scattered across the floor of the Club Thursday.
As time went on, some children turned the boxes, along with egg cartons, toilet paper rolls and other household items, into arcade games, a giant calculator and a house with a Vans shoebox chimney.
Others chose to draw on the cardboard with markers.
Sergio Maciel, 15, a Will C. Wood sophomore and president of the local Keystone Club, the teen program of the Boys and Girls Club, issued this “cardboard challenge” to children ages 6-18.
They could create whatever they like.
He got the idea from a video he saw in his honors chemistry class.
“My chemistry teacher, Ms. Waugh, she inspires all of her students to make the world a more beautiful place,” Maciel said.
One day she showed them “Caine’s Arcade,” a short documentary about a 9-year-old boy who built an elaborate cardboard arcade in his father’s used auto parts shop in East Los Angeles.
Maciel, who intends to study electrical engineering and computer science in college, wanted to provide an opportunity at the Club for creative thinking.
“Why not maybe open up the minds of the children?” he said.
The first day of building was very fun, he said, with about 20 children coming in to the Club Wednesday.
Roughly the same number of children were busy building Thursday.
“These kids are going with whatever their mind wants,” Maciel said.
Tyrese Nunez, and Raphael Salazar, both 10, were making additions to the life-size robot Nunez started Wednesday.
“I think we’re going to keep working on this,” Nunez said. “We added some on the helmet.”
Nunez based the robot on Roblox, an online platform where players design their own games.
In addition to the robot, he made a cardboard sword and shield.
Nunez wrote information about the Roblox game, including the website, on all sides of the robot.
Salazar asked Nunez what he wanted to add to it, and helped him get into his robot gear.
All these cardboard creations will be on display in front of the Boys and Girls Club, 100 Holly Lane, Friday.
Each kid creator will receive a prize during this gathering, Maciel said.
By Jessica Rogness, The Reporter