KANSAS CITY, Mo. — ScrapsKC is a place where your imagination can take flight.
“It doesn’t have to be a pipe cleaner, it doesn’t have to be a cork, or a bottle of wine, it does have to be a computer keyboard key, what can it be? And then let your mind go wild.” Alexis Webb Bechtold, workshop facilitator at ScrapsKC, said.
No matter your age, inspiration and creativity stretch endlessly here at ScrapsKC
“You can come here, spend 90 minutes for $5 dollars, and you can use any of the supplies that are in this room, make whatever you want and take it home,” Webb Bechtold said.
The endless opportunities for creativity are even greater for children, especially those who might be drawing a blank in the classroom because schools are dealing with staffing shortages, closures and more.
“Right now we are in a pandemic, and it’s just been really hard on us," Webb Bechtold said. "We always want to support our educators, and if that means keeping kids engaged in something, and that helps out educators then we are fulfilling our mission."
Children start with their Make and Take room, which is filled with items to such as pipe cleaners, straws, tape, yarn and more.
"We want you to look at these supplies and think about all the things that you can do with it. Thinking about how these pieces connect together because we don’t have glue in here," Webb Bechtold said. "That means that how do these two pieces connect without glue. You have to think about how about I need a base, I need a piece that goes up, a piece that a marble can go through."
ScrapsKC is a place filled with tools and treasures galore, of all shapes and sizes. However, this nonprofit is working to piece together some skills students might be losing outside of the classroom.
“We've got a lot of problem solving skills going on in here. Mechanical engineering, we’ve got a lot of measuring, and then not only that, but we have that those fine motor skills of actually picking up these pieces putting them together," Webb - Bechtold said. "Sometimes it's hard to get a pipe cleaner through a plastic canvas, sometimes, it's difficult to string a bead on a piece of thread, and so building up those fine motor skills is a big part of what we do here.”
Executive Director Brenda Mott told KSHB 41 News that ScrapsKC's goal is to make the Kansas City community stronger. Mott said ScrapsKC wants kids and families stuck in the house to come out and volunteer.
“Some of the jobs that will be done volunteering, it could be pricing," Mott said. "Everybody loves to work the pricing gun, and it could be packing materials to go out on the floor, sometimes we need help sweeping and dusting."
This local, creative nonprofit said they are offering more than just a blank canvas, but a safe space to create true works of art
“We want the community to know this is a child-friendly place," Mott said. "Anybody can touch anything they want in here, if it breaks we will just create it into something new."
