Students attend Maker roundtable in nation’s capitol

It sounds like the beginnings of any successful startup. A group of five young guys coming together with a passion to make a real world difference. Long nights filling out applications, sending emails, and writing code in someone’s basement. At last, national recognition and trips across the country.

Though Wenatchee High School’s “startup” has yet to finish their final product, juniors Ethan Toth, Storrie Skalisky, Silas Abbott, and seniors Kyle Norland and Graham Morgan have come a long way in creating the Wenatchee Mini Maker Faire. Last week, Toth and Skalisky attended the Maker Cities Roundtable in Washington, D.C., after being invited by the White House Office of Science and Technology.

“The big focus point of the White House is combining industry with government and bringing that towards the schools, so here that’s STEM-based (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math-based) project learning,” Toth said. “The roundtable was focused on how do we get all these aspects of the Maker ideology into each community across the United States.”

Last October, Toth attended a Maker Faire in Seattle, an event where tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, engineers, authors, and artists interact and display what they are creating. He found it so exciting that back in Wenatchee, he told his friends they had to start their own faire.

Coincidentally, Wenatchee Mayor Frank Kuntz accepted the White House’s challenge for mayors to increase Maker movements in their communities. Kuntz said the White House has kept in touch with them ever since, and it was through accepting this challenge that Wenatchee received an invitation to D.C.

Wenatchee Councilwoman Karen Rutherford and Community and Economic Development Director Steve King traveled with the students to the roundtable that ran from May 11-12. Around 60 guests representing 12 communities attended, and as the youngest group to ever organize a Maker Faire, Toth and Storrie were among “giants.”

“It was a lot of founders of organizations that are huge for the Maker movement. People that were on the base floor of the first 3D printers, makebots. You would see major leaders in communities across the United States, and you would see students from MIT who started over 50 Makerspaces,” Toth said. “They looked at us because we have a student-led Maker Faire, the youngest producers in Maker Faire history. Because of that, they started a school Maker Faire initiative.”

Despite their young age, Skalisky said they were treated as “individuals, not students.”

“During the meeting we had an open-floor session where everyone was around the table and talked about the future of Make and issues they were having of bringing Make to their communities,” Skalisky said. “And after that we divided up into subgroups. Mine was about involvement because throughout America we are having a hard time getting minorities and women into this Maker movement.”

Having started in California, the movement is all about innovation and the freedom to try and make new things, Norland said. The main way this is achieved is through Maker Faires across the country, where different artisans show their work and learn from one another.

“The big thing of the Maker Faire is to excite people, so they can have a visual reference what they can do if you actually put the time and effort to make something happen,” Toth said.

For Toth and his friends, this is to produce Wenatchee Mini Maker faire, which will run Oct. 3 at the Town Toyota Center. The first step was to apply and receive approval to hold a Mini Faire from the Maker Faire organization in California. From there, the students received sponsorship from the Community Foundation of North Central Washington and the Greater Wenatchee Area Technology Alliance. With each member having a different set of skills and a passion for engineering, the group has launched their own website, created social media accounts, and organized a Lego faire earlier at Pybus Market all on their own.

“People have been surprisingly supportive [of the Maker Faire]. I mean, there’s always a bit of hesitation; we have to go through an extra step. But once they saw we were serious and once we connected with the city, then people were like, ‘Great, let’s do it,’ “ Norland said.

The big push now is promoting the event to both makers and attendees. Makers can apply online for a booth through Aug. 1 and can be anyone from a crafter, engineer, musician. The family-friendly event is free to the public and will start at 9 a.m.

The group is also looking for volunteers, especially underclassman who they hope can keep the movement going for coming years. Though the short-term goal is to celebrate what the community is making, the long-term goal is to inspire those who may not pursue a typical education to create, Skalisky said.

“We are working to teach [non-graduates] skilled labor to get them to be able to work for Alcoa, Van Doren, and some airspace we have here, because right now they aren’t looking towards Wenatchee to hire employees. They aren’t finding what they need in Wenatchee,” Skalisky said.

In addition to keeping the faire an annual event, Kuntz said a mobile Makerspace may be in the making to give the public access to 3D printers and other Maker tools.

“Anything I can do to get a group of people together to innovate on products, that’s good small business… Maybe that will spur something that will be the next major employer in the city,” Kuntz said. “What is cool to me is seeing people with passion. These kids obviously have it, and they are doing great things with it.”

To learn more about Wenatchee Mini Maker Faire and apply as a Maker, sponsor, or volunteer, check their website, or follow them on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.