Children Building Skills

This was the moment Alec Matuska had been waiting for.

The Central Elementary School fifth-grader used small interlocking blocks to make a replica of Seattle's Space Needle.

Kathryn Berger, 9, of Valpariso (center) continues to work as Jacob Evan (right) is evaluated by judge Gina Bird of Chevron Texaco.
(STEPHANIE DOWELL/Post-Tribune)

Young competitors wear yellow hard hats and expressions of concentration, like Samantha Stasiek, 7, of Valparaiso.
(STEPHANIE DOWELL/Post-Tribune)

Alec was participating in the 18th annual Block Kids Building Program, sponsored by the local chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction.

The last time he was in the challenge, he made a bell tower, with which he wasn't too pleased. So Alec, who wants to be an artist or an architect, decided a while ago he wanted to make the needle and set to work.

"I used to live in Seattle. I always wanted to go in the Space Needle, but never got to," Alec said. "It makes me feel better. It gives me a visual of what it's probably like."

Nineteen children from throughout the region participated in the competition, at the Valparaiso Boys & Girls Club.

The kids, in first through sixth grades and mostly from Valparaiso, had one hour to come up with their design, using up to 100 interlocking blocks. Also available were rocks, string, foil and poster board.

Two judges reviewed the contestants' work, asking them questions on what they know about construction and what they want to be when they grow up.

"A lot of them are repeat kids. They come year after year," said Dawn Milosevich, chairwoman of the event and a member of the association's Northwest Indiana chapter.

The competition opens children up to different aspects of construction, while giving the association exposure in the community, she said.

Wearing yellow plastic hard hats and competition T-shirts, the kids worked busily on their creations.

That included Alexxus Thomason, a sixth-grader at Kankakee Valley Intermediate School. This is her third time in the contest; this time, younger sister Morgan, a first-grader at DeMotte Elementary School, joined her.

Alexxus took the grand prize two years ago with a bridge and decided to do one this year.

"I thought it would be cool to do, with a different design and different materials," she said. "And my dad's an ironworker, so I thought it would be fun."