Here’s where it all began.

We asked for your help on Kickstarter to build a truck to bring the joy of making back to kids, thinking that maybe there would be enough folks who’d be kind enough to chip in $15 so we could get a laser cutter to run workshops with local schools…

What actually happened blew us away. We exceeded our funding goal by over 20%. We started getting calls from schools across the country - heck, across the world - asking if the SparkTruck could come and visit them. A group of parents in Baltimore started pooling their own funds so we could roadtrip across the country and make cool stuff with their kids.

The more we thought about the idea, the more we liked it. And so we thought… hey, if we’re going to Baltimore, why not road-trip across the country for an entire summer bringing the joy of making to hundreds of kids by teaching workshops along the way?

And then we thought: wait, we can do better. Why not bring the joy of making to thousands of kids by teaching local mentors how to run design-build workshops with them along the way? And when we’re not teaching workshops, or teaching workshops on teaching workshops, we’ll hang out in the parking lots of coffeeshops and libraries and run an impromptu design studio, allowing folks to watch professional designers at work.

It sounded like a good way to spend the summer.

Welcome to SparkTruck: Sparkin’ Across America. We’re glad you’re joining us for the ride - it’s going to be fun.