TOMS RIVER – The Toms River Regional School District will serve as the host to the Jersey Shore Makerfest on Oct. 20 at Toms River High School North.
The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the high school’s RWJBarnabas Health Arena, which is located at 1245 Old Freehold Road.
This will be the event’s fourth year. It was co-founded by Toms River Regional Assistant Superintendent Marc Natanagara and Supervisor of Educational Technology Tiffany Lucey.
According to a press release, Makerfest celebrates “the maker movement” which brings together artists, crafters, inventors and educators to share works of imagination and address real world problems.
“When Tiffany and I started this event, we both said this could be huge. When the response and participation actually happened it was more than we had imagined,” Natanagara said.
According to the press release, there have been more than 250 makers and 10,000 participants in the event’s first three years.
“The event was one of those ‘build it and they will come’ ideas. Mr. Natanagara and I both have a willingness to take chances. We both wanted to try something out of the box with the founding of this event,” Lucey said.
According to Natanagara, 4,000 people participated in the first year.
“Tiffany and I knew there was a desire to have this type of hands-on experience in the community and with sponsorships we were able to make it free. We were able to eliminate a lot of barriers for the event,” Natanagara said.
The event is free, and makers and attendees are asked to pre-register at jerseyshoremakerfest.org
“Tiffany and I just want people to be here. Makers demonstrate to attendees and show them innovations with hands-on experience. The event is not just showing what you have made,” Natanagara said.
Lucey said that as the event has grown, participants and makers have come from outside Toms River’s borders.
“The event is to show people what is possible. People can take away from the event ideas they can implement in other places,” Lucey said.
There are no age restrictions for makers or for participants.
“The intergenerational experience is so important for this event. It gives people a chance to learn from others in our community. There are so many people who have extraordinary experiences both here and far away. This event helps bring those different experiences together,” Lucey said.
One example of what takes place at the event would be a bonsai artist who brings shrubs and shows guests how to clip and tie them.
“Apple premiered their new programming language at this event last year. The company let kids do programming that controlled robots and other things,” Natanagara said.
There will be a panel discussion regarding social media and EdTalks during which people will have an opportunity to talk about their innovations.