Imagine walking into a room filled with the tools and supplies you need for virtually any crafting hobby, including 3D printers, laser cutters, woodworking tools, heavy-duty sewing machines, an electronics shop, and more, all available for you to use at any time, day or night.
If it sounds like a dream, wake up — it exists right here in Tallahassee at Making Awesome, a community of makers, artists, and crafters organized around a shared workspace and organized for charitable, educational, and scientific purposes.
The community maker space is one of six local nonprofits being recognized by the Beatitude Foundation and GiveTLH, a community effort underwritten by philanthropist and businessman Rick Kearney. Each organization’s story will be shared in the Democrat, along with information about how you can help.
Says Making Awesome board member Will McCluskey, “we strive to foster community and build collective knowledge in the arts, sciences, and technology; incubate, encourage, and provide resources to entrepreneurs and inventors; and educate and inspire the next generation of leaders.” All for a membership fee of just $25 per month.
Making Awesome was formed in 2011 when founder David Brightbill had a vision to bring a maker space to Tallahassee. “He saw the excitement and empowerment that maker spaces could create in a community, and wanted to make that happen here,” shares McCluskey.
“He held many open-community meetings to find out what would be best for the area, and quickly a core group emerged. To not reinvent the wheel, over 30 other maker spaces were visited, and by 2012 the core group was able to establish Making Awesome as a 501(c) 3 not for profit organization.”
Since then, Making Awesome has grown to over 100 members, built and maintained eight different workshops, and offered hundreds of classes and events to the community. “Being a small, fully volunteer-run nonprofit, our dollars and time typically go to core activities like making sure the lights are on, the tools work, and the space is safe,” says McCluskey. “We want more people to know that we exist.”
Current classes open to the community include woodworking, soldering, jewelry making, laser cutting, sewing, costume making, vinyl cutting and Arduino. Many of the instructors volunteer their time to teach classes, but some classes require a fee, especially if supplies are needed that are not available in the workshop.
For those who wish to be a member, the monthly dues of $25 provides access to eight different work areas including traditional and CNC woodworking, heavy-duty and standard sewing machines, 3D printers and scanners, a model shop, and electronic tools. McCluskey hopes that soon a photography dark room, videography studio, bicycle repair shop, and mixed media art space will be added.
Members can work on their own projects using the shop tools and free supplies including wood, 3d printing filament, and electronic components, and also have access to a public classroom, meeting space, library and lobby, and project storage space. “The GiveTLH grant could help us grow by adding staff and expanding what we can offer,” says McCluskey.
Curious crafters can check out the space during Making Awesome’s monthly “Last Friday” open house events. All events can be found online at www.makingawesome.org, and they regularly host public classes, open house events, and holiday themed kids days. “We want to hear from the community about what else could be needed,” McCluskey says. “When we can combine learning, doing, and community, I don’t think life gets better than that.
GiveTLH honorees each receive a $1,000 grant from the Beatitude Foundation and a 12-month membership to United Partners for Human Services, a collaboration of over 200 human service organizations focused on advocacy, engagement, and community education.
After reader voting in November, the top three organizations will also receive grants in the amounts of $2,500, $5,000, and $10,000, respectively, and a free registration and exhibitor booth space for the United Partners for Human Services Annual Conference. The first place winning organization will receive $5,000 in services from BowStern Marketing, as well as LocaliQ for a total of $10,000 in marketing services.
About #GiveTLH
#GiveTLH, underwritten by the Beatitude Foundation and Rick Kearney, is a look at six nonprofits in our community and how you can help them in their life-changing work. At the conclusion of this series, Kearney will award grants to the nonprofit that gets the most votes in an online poll. For more profiles, visit give.tallahassee.com.
