This summer marks 75 years of Lynchburg Covenant Fellowship serving neighbors in need in Lynchburg, Virginia.
This year, they decided to try out a new fundraising method: Hosting a community-wide LEGO contest.
“It is the first annual event,” Connie Snavely, the executive director of Lynchburg Covenant Fellowship, told local news outlet WSET. “We are celebrating our 75th anniversary of Lynchburg Covenant Fellowship, our nonprofit.”
“We provide affordable housing, so it seemed like the perfect fit to do a LEGO build contest,” she continued. “We were very pleased with all of the [responses]. All but one of our 14 entries are from youth and children. It became a family affair in some cases.”
Snavely invited people both in and out of Lynchburg, Virginia to take part in the competition by voting for their favorite designs online.
Each vote directly donates $1 to support LCF, which provides affordable housing to low-income families and individuals in need.
“We are ‘housing with a heart,’” Snavely said. “We serve all populations, from the physically and intellectually disabled, elderly, those with mental health conditions.”
“Some of our housing is HUD subsidized and people pay a portion of their rent based on their income,” she explained. “For people who are still low-income, but maybe above the income guidelines for a HUD property, they’re not able to go out and spend $1,000 or $1,200 for a nice, safe, decent apartment.”
“So, these funds help us to maintain our property, as well as keep them affordable for people who need that assistance.”
At the Lynchburg community market, contestant Patrick Marchant showed off the Fantastic Summer Treehouse he built with his younger sister Kathleen.
“We do a lot with LEGO in our houses and we are fortunate that my husband held on to tubs full of [bricks], so we had a lot to work with,” their mother, Brady Marchant said with a smile. “So we worked on the design together, worked on different trial and error. … It was definitely a family effort as far as trying to make sure it expressed all of us.”
The top three winners, who will be picked on September 1, will win LEGO gift certificates in $250, $100, or $50 amounts.
“They were really driven to try to do their very best [and] try to win one of the prizes,” Marchant said of her two children. “And I think it was also fun that we were able to keep that motivation that it was not only the prize, but the good cause combined together, that helped us feel even more excited about promoting it.”
Snavely invited people to vote as many times as they wanted until the contest closes on August 31.
“[People] can vote on our website for each one,” she said. “They can vote as many times as they want, and for as many as they would like to. We’ve got very creative designs, with a high level of detail inside them.”
“In addition to supporting the [LEGO creators], you’re also helping people who need some help with keeping their rent so they can afford and so they can live in a safe, good home,” she said.
“Having a home means everything.”
You may also like: German grandma builds wheelchair ramps from Legos to make her town more accessible
Header image via Lynchburg Covenant Fellowship
