used LEGO® bricks
Any condition · any brand · loose or in a bag · we wash and sort
Plates, wheels, minifigures and half-finished sets welcome too
No bag? A handful counts. No expiration date.
Where to bring them
The drive runs through October 31, 2026.
builds a kid's
science lab
Updated after each Troop meeting. Each mark on the bar is 2,500 bricks — the same wall we are coloring in on the poster.
See what your bricks become
Gravity Games in one minute. The car, the ramp and the weights in this video are built from the same kind of bricks you are about to drop off. All the videos are free, captioned and have no sign-up.
Inside every kit
A Shoebox Lab kit is a box with everything a child needs for a real science project: a build, a workbook the child can read alone, a short guide for the adult beside them, and short videos for every step. Bricks are the building material in two of the kits, and every kit gets a set for free play.
What a kid builds with your bricks
Every kit comes with a bag of bricks and about five build cards: step-by-step ideas like the ones below. A card gets a kid started. After that, the bricks are theirs to invent with.
There are 40 cards so far, and every one will be free to print at shoeboxlab.org/build, so a family can keep building long after the kit is finished.
The families your bricks reach
Every kit goes, free, to a family through The Root Cellar, a community center in Lewiston, Maine. The Root Cellar has worked in Lewiston's Tree Street neighborhood since 2006, and most of the families who come through its doors are new to the country.
That shaped how the kits are built. The steps are shown in pictures and short videos, so a kit works even while a child or a parent is still learning English. The workbooks and guides are being translated into the languages those families speak; Portuguese, French and Spanish are done, with more on the way. Nothing in the box needs to be bought, and nothing needs a science background.
The kits are made to be given, never sold. And your bricks will not stop at the kits: whatever is left after the kits are packed gets cleaned, bundled and handed to The Root Cellar so they can give it to families directly.
About The Root Cellar, Lewiston
- Community center at 89 Birch Street, in the Tree Street neighborhood, open since 2006 (the organization dates to 1989).
- After-school care and a summer camp that draws more than 100 kids.
- English classes for roughly 800 adults a year in Lewiston, with students from the Congo, Afghanistan, Peru, Zimbabwe and beyond.
- A food pantry, a café that doubles as a warming center, and affordable housing on Pier Street.
Sources: The Root Cellar; Sun Journal (Mar 2025); Amjambo Africa.
Why a brick drive, and why a Scout
I'm Randolph. I designed and tested the Shoebox Lab as my Eagle Scout service project with Troop 313 here in Arlington. An Eagle project asks a Scout to plan and lead something real that helps other people; fewer than four Scouts in a hundred earn the rank.
Bricks are the one part of a kit that money buys badly and closets hold plenty of. So instead of buying new, we are asking neighbors for the bricks their kids have outgrown. A team of Scouts and volunteers from Troop 313 will wash, sort and count every one, then pack the kits this winter.
Half-finished sets are welcome; we part them out. You do not need to fish out the instruction booklets; we recycle them. And nothing gets wasted: bricks that do not fit a kit go to Root Cellar families as they are.
Questions people ask
Do the bricks need to be clean or sorted?
No. We wash and sort everything. Dusty attic bins are fine.
Do you take Duplo, or bricks that are not LEGO®?
Yes, anything. Bricks that do not fit a kit are cleaned and bundled for Root Cellar families, and Duplo is perfect for the youngest kids there.
What about sets, minifigures, wheels and odd pieces?
All welcome. Incomplete sets get parted out into the general brick supply. Wheels help the car kit. Minifigures make free play more fun.
Should I include the instruction booklets?
Don't bother fishing them out. We won't use them, and we recycle them.
What are build cards?
Step-by-step picture cards for building one thing: a race car, a dragon, a catapult. Each kit comes with about five, and the rest are free to print at shoeboxlab.org/build. They are how a bag of mixed bricks turns into something a kid is proud of.
How many bricks do you actually need?
About 25,000: roughly 100 per kit for free play, plus the car and the 24-brick wall in the two kits that build with bricks. If we get more, the extra goes straight to Root Cellar families.
Can I give money instead?
Not right now. Bricks are what we need this month. If that changes, this page will say so.
Where exactly do I drop them off?
At the Carving Night on October 23, at any Troop 313 meeting in October, or email [email protected] and we will send you the address.
Explore the Shoebox Lab
The drive is one month. The kits are the point. Have a look at what your bricks are joining.
Designed and tested by Randolph K. as part of earning the Eagle Scout rank with Troop 313, Arlington, Massachusetts, Spirit of Adventure Council. Kits will be packed by the Scouts and volunteers of Troop 313. This drive benefits The Root Cellar. LEGO® and DUPLO® are trademarks of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor or endorse this drive.
Questions? Just ask.
Not sure if what you have will help? The answer is almost always yes.