Tag: LEGO Building Competition

Build a BuildingBuild a Building

March 14, 2023 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Plastic bricks and a building competition probably aren’t the first things you would associate with a museum; however, for many who grow up in the Whistler area they are one of the first introductions a child has to the Whistler Museum. The museum held its first “Build a Building” competition using LEGO bricks in September 1966 and the annual event continues to bring crowds of children to the museum each summer.

In the September 12, 1996 edition of the Whistler Question, the museum called on “Lego fans, budding engineers and aspiring architects” to enter their creations in a bid to win prizes donated by LEGO and local businesses such as Great Games and Toys. There were two ways to enter; participants could build at home with their own bricks or build at the Whistler Museum on the day of the competition with bricks provided by the toy store. The two categories were judged and awarded prizes separately. Costing $2 to enter, the event was both a fundraiser for the museum building fund and a fun way to bring more children to the museum.

Building takes place at the Whistler Museum in 1997. Whistler Museum and Archives Collection.

According to the report of museum board director Paul Fournier, 66 children participated in this first competition and created “some really elaborate entries.” With any kind of building allowed, kids built hospitals, museums, libraries, lakefront homes, and even some helipads (the helipad at the Whistler Heath Centre was upgraded in late summer of 1996). Entries were judged by Citizens of the Year Kris Shoup (1995), Stan and Shirley Langtry (1994), Sonya McCarthy (1991) and Linda Marshall (1996). Winners included Liam Fisher, Robyn and Jamie Pratt, Emily Macalister and Julia Murray, Jesse Clemiss, and Evan Macalister.

The following year’s event saw more than 200 participants. The competition took place both inside the museum and in the parking area outside (event today, trying to fit 200 people inside the museum building is not recommended) and organizers immediately began asking the community about alternative venues for the next year’s event. Again, there were two categories and winners took home prize packages of LEGO from Great Games and Toys.

Images from the 1997 competition. Whistler Museum and Archives Collection

Since the 1990s, the building competition has evolved and moved locations, taking place at the Spruce Grove Field House, Florence Petersen Park and even online in 2020. The annual event continues to introduce children to the museum each summer (this year will mark the 28th competition) and has itself become a part of Whistler’s history.

Building competitions, however, are not just for children. This month the Whistler Museum and LUNA (Late and Unique Nighttime Alternatives) will be hosting The Big Kids Building Competition for adults on Wednesday, March 22. Entry is $5, or $2 for museum or LUNA members, and there are limited spaces available. Unlike the museum’s early building competitions, there will be no build-at-home category and all participants will build at the Whistler Museum on March 22 with bricks provided by the museum. Like the early competitions, entries will be judged and winners will go home with great prizes from local businesses including Armchair Books, Escape! Whistler, the Fairmont Chateau Whistler and the Scandinave Spa.

Learn more about this year’s Big Kids Building Competition here.

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It’s Back!It’s Back!

March 12, 2023 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

The Big Kids Building Competition with LEGO bricks is back! This year’s theme is “Design your ultimate Whistler hideaway.” Would it be a treehouse? A boat? A cabin on the side of the ski hill? A park that no one else knows about?

Building will take place at the competition (at the Whistler Museum behind the Whistler Public Library) and all LEGO bricks will be provided.

Thanks to our incredible sponsors who have provided prizes for this year’s competition: Armchair Books, Escape! Whistler, Fairmont Chateau Whistler (The Wildflower restaurant) & Scandinave Spa Whistler.

The competition is open to ages 18 and up. Entry is $5 or $2 for Museum or LUNA members.

Drop by the museum, give us a call (604 932 2019) or email us at events @ whistlermuseum.org to claim your spot.

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Wrap Up: The 26th Annual Building Competition with LEGO BricksWrap Up: The 26th Annual Building Competition with LEGO Bricks

August 29, 2022 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Thank you to everyone who came out for the 26th Annual Building Competition with LEGO Bricks this past weekend! You built incredible representations of your favourite parts of summer and we can’t wait to do it again next year – registration will open in late July/early August, so keep an eye out!

A huge thanks to our judges for this year’s competition: Erik from Arts Whistler, Chris from Whistler Community Services Society, and Jeanette from the Whistler Public Library. They had a very difficult task and were very impressed by the creations they got to evaluate.

Unfortunately, we were having so much fun that we weren’t able to get photographs of all of the creations before the wind started to take them down. If any parents have photographs of their child’s entry, we would love to see them! (Photos can be emailed to events @ whistlermuseum.org or tag us on social media)

A special thanks to the local businesses who donated amazing prizes for competition winners and for goody bags:

  • Purebread
  • Lucia Gelato
  • The Adventure Group
  • Armchair Books
  • The Old Spaghetti Factory
  • Cows
  • Escape! Whistler

We couldn’t do this event without the help of the community, from donors to judges to volunteers!

See you next year!

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What do you love about summer vacation?What do you love about summer vacation?

August 23, 2022 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

The months of July and August are highly anticipated by many children throughout the year as the time of summer vacation, when daily routines change (or are entirely discarded) and opportunities for adventures can be plentiful. Whistler can be a great place to spend summers as a child, whether as a visitor or a resident. This was also true 95 years ago, when the Matheson family from Vancouver began spending their two months of summer vacation at Alta Lake. These visits were still fondly remembered by Betty Jane Warner (the youngest of the three Matheson children) in 2011.

Alta Lake was an amazing summer retreat for the Matheson children, who spent a good part of the time in and on the lake. Philip Collection.

Beginning in 1927, Violet Matheson, her three children (Jack, Claudia, and Betty Jane), and often a maid, would board the Union Steamship in downtown Vancouver at the end of June. After the trip by boat to Squamish, the family would travel to Alta Lake aboard the Pacific Great Eastern Railway. Once there, they would stay at a cabin they referred to as their “summer cottage,” owned by William “Mac” MacDermott, who became a good family friend.

The months spent at Alta Lake by the Mathesons were very different from their daily lives in Vancouver. The cabin had a “cranky” wood stove, coal oil lamps, a copper tub, and an outhouse. The children would go swimming, go hiking with Mac, pick ripe blueberries, row around the lake among the waterlilies, spend hot afternoons reading in the shade, and visit Rainbow Lodge to pick up the mail and sometimes make purchases from the store. Claudia and Betty Jane had to get dressed up only once over the summer for their annual visit to Mrs. Harrop’s tearoom. They also looked forward to their annual picnic excursion with the Ford family, who lived at Alta Lake.

The Matheson family stopped coming to Alta Lake in 1935 after the death of Betty Jane’s father Robert, who had spent the summers working in Vancouver and visiting Alta Lake occasionally. Looking back on the summers spent there as a child, however, Betty Jane fondly recalled their “happy summers.”

Showing that summer fun continued well past the 1920s, four excited kids take part in the 3-legged race at the Summer Recreation sports day. P. Hocking photo. Whistler Question Collection, 1979.

There are still a lot of things to enjoy about summer vacations in Whistler today, which is why the theme for the 26th Annual Building Competition with LEGO Bricks is “What do you love about summer vacation?”

We are very excited to be hosting our annual building competition in person this summer on Saturday, August 27. While the past couple of years have seen the competition transition to building at home, this year we will be returning to our previous format where all competitors build their creations in Florence Petersen Park using the LEGO bricks provided. After the building time, our judges will evaluate the creations and then prizes donated by incredible local businesses will be awarded for the different age categories.

To register for this year’s competition and share your creations of your favourite parts of summer, contact us at the Whistler Museum. Ages 3 and up are welcome. Learn more here.

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