What if 2020 is the year we’ve been waiting for?

The challenges this year have been, in many ways, unimaginable. There’s no need to list them, we all know. We’re all not in the same boat, but we’re in the same storm.

We can try to understand and cope with the truly devastating effects of this crisis, but, we can also look at the opportunity and the chance for change. We can look at how to build a better future. We can look at how we, as Makers, can make a new world.

In a poem by Leslie Dwight, she expresses this in the most inspiring terms:

What if 2020 isn’t cancelled?
What if 2020 is the year we’ve been waiting for?
A year so uncomfortable, so painful, so scary, so raw — that it finally forces us to grow.
A year that screams so loud, finally awakening us from our ignorant slumber.
A year we finally accept the need for change.
Declare change. Work for change. Become the change. A year we finally band together, instead of pushing each other further apart.

2020 isn’t cancelled, but rather
the most important year of them all.

-Leslie Dwight

2020 for The Brickyard Collaborative has been an amazing and inspiring, along with a troubling and challenging year. It’s the year we reached out to the community and got countless volunteers to help make PPE – over 4000 pieces – and got it into the hands of those who need it most. It’s the year we met the people who keep this city alive, and helped them.

It’s the year we learned the power of “Make in Place” – the concept that local manufacturing in small facilities can supply local demand, building the local economy. It’s the year we learned how to take our tools, our talent and our motivation to make a real, concrete difference in people’s lives.

It’s the year we asked ourselves what a makerspace really is, and what it really means to the community.

2020 is also the year we are moving into a new home – doubling our space, with far more capability. It’s the year we are expanding, consolidating and refocusing our rapid prototyping capabilities. It’s the year we will grow into what we’ve always known is possible – a full, complete makerspace facility for the entire North Shore fostering creativity, innovation and collaboration among an amazingly diverse population of makers.

Grow with us. Help us grow.

Donate to The Brickyard 2020 Patronicity campaign and we’ll use those funds to match our grant application to the MassDEV Collaborative Workspace program, to double your donation. Donations can be monetary, or as equipment or donated services. Contact us by responding to this email if you have questions. This application is due August 10, our campaign closes on the 7th. There’s not much time.

Show us your support. Show us you believe in what we’re doing. Show us we can make a difference.

Read more here: The Brickyard 2020.