Encouraging donations for the sake of charity using LEGO can take so many different forms, the same way the namesake bricks can be assembled into anything within limits of the imagination. Only this Monday, we talked about the Fairy Bricks Bikes to Billund challenge where they would travel on bicycle and ferry from London to LEGO House while supporters donated on their website to give LEGO sets to children’s hospitals. And then there’s this charitable initiative launched by St. Edmundsbury Cathedral in Suffolk over in the UK. They have a number of charities under their umbrella and have been thinking of means to raise funds for them. The answer came in the idea of involving charity donors in an ambitious project: a minifigure-scale, custom LEGO St. Edmundsbury Cathedral to be collectively built.
With the help of UK LEGO group Bright Bricks, St. Edmundsbury has received comprehensive building instructions for the brick-built model, plus all the bricks they would need to complete it. The nice part of their initiative is inviting visitors to the cathedral to participate in their model-building project for charity. They can pitch in with adding LEGO bricks to the miniature cathedral, worth £1 apiece.
This custom LEGO St. Edmundsbury Cathedral was officially begun back in May 28 of 2016, and according to cathedral officials the actual construction is now ¼ completed. The total brick count is at 200,000 so the donation total would eventually reach that much in pounds sterling throughout the initiative’s duration.
Bright Bricks, which conceptualized the model build, also created some exclusive LEGO-certified box models of St. Edmundsbury in small and medium dimensions (tinier than mini or micro-scale). These custom sets are limited-edition (500 each size) and can only be purchased from the cathedral’s model-build exhibit. They’re hoping it will become a local Suffolk tourist attraction.