![Hosting the SCLA Casptone Mentor Dinner outside allowed for more attendees on September 27, 2021 at Silver Creek. This event would’ve usually been held inside. According to Lauren Kohn, a SCLA 12 teacher, “If we have a higher number of people, as long as we can host the event outside, then that seems to be keeping every[one] safe”.](https://schsnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/sxMAIGbSYGodZkqmrvTi5YWcJ1ssWA08ApkeMLpp-900x675.jpeg)
Sitting at a table surrounded by people, everyone has a model in one hand and tools in the other. People are building, talking, laughing, drawing, painting, but above all else, a part of the Build Night community.
Build Night is a community event hosted by Josh Lassiter, the owner of Bits and Bobs Gundam store at the Old Town Marketplace in Longmont, Colorado. The event happens every other Friday and includes model building, games, and entertainment.
People at Build Night tend to build model kits known as Gundams, small buildable action figures made by Bandai Namco that resemble robots. The origin of these is from a Japanese anime of the same name that features these same robots as giant mecha piloted by a human in massive battles.
The purpose of Build Night is to help build a community of individuals who typically never interact much with people, mostly being reserved to their houses with little to no contact with others, let alone other people with similar hobbies and interests.
“I’ve noticed it’s helped a lot of the community members kind of come out of their shells and be themselves more,” said Maddie Cline, a Build Night regular, “It gives people an outlet and a chance to be themselves”
The Gundam community around Colorado has a fairly big following, the Gundam Base is a large event that goes all across the U.S. and provides an opportunity for people with a love of Gundams and people new to model building, to come out of their shells to a convention and express something they love. The most recent Colorado event in early October had roughly 5,000 people attending.
“In our community, it probably spreads across the entire Front Range,” Jayce Stevens , another Build Night regular said, “We have people coming up from Fort Luton, Broomfield, Boulder, Fort Collins, Eaton… so it’s a pretty big community.
The size of the community also allows for all kinds of people to participate from the extremely introverted Gundam veteran to the extroverted newbie, each person is unique but the community is always nice and welcoming to newcomers.
“Build Night is a very welcoming crowd,” Josh Lassiter said “There’s always the group that gets here the earliest and helps set up and they find their spots first, as we get through the night, as we show up later, there’s more and more people here, and they’re always very welcoming.”
The Longmont Build Night is an ongoing event that will remain for a long time. I have been going to this event for about a year at this point and each time is a unique experience that provides something fun for everybody who is in attendance. If you are interested in finding out more you can visit their Discord here.
