Captain Strong Primary School librarian displays Lego sets to spark imagination among students

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After a 17-year career in education, Captain Strong Primary School’s librarian, Ted Schelvan, has found a spot for his hobby of building Lego sets.

This is Schelvan’s first year as a librarian for Captain Strong. Prior to being librarian, he did not have a spot for the extravagant Legos that he has on display in the school library.

“So once I got this position I was sort of like, ‘Oh good, I can have a place for it and stuff,’ and I knew that it would be something that the kids would also enjoy,” Schelvan said.

Schelvan has lost track of the number of Lego sets that he has on display, but he said one of the students counted 22 sets on display in the library. There’s plenty of room for future completed sets as Schelvan has many more still in boxes.

On top of one book shelf in the library, a theme of Harry Potter can be found with three different sets including Hedwig The Owl, the train to Hogwarts and Hogwarts castle. On another sits the impressive Titanic set, which took Schelvan a combined 30 hours to complete, he said. The Titanic set includes 9,090 pieces. Another set that stands tall on the library’s counter is the Eiffel Tower coming in at 10,001 pieces.



For Lego and Star Wars fans, Schelvan does have the Lego Death Star and Millennium Falcon on his list.

Schelvan said he builds the sets at home and waits until custom-to-the-set glass cases arrive so the sets will remain protected. The cases are from a company based in the United Kingdom called Wicked Brick. The cases take around six to eight weeks to arrive. The company has add-on options, including backgrounds, Schelvan said.

Some students have asked Schelvan when it will be their turn to build a set. Schelvan said he hasn’t toyed around with that idea too much. But he would like to incorporate a club or learning activity with the Legos sometime down the road. The displays command high interest from the students. During an open house at the school, students showed their parents all the sets in the library. Some students tell Schelvan about the sets they are building at home, with some being labeled for 18 years and up based on the required experience level.

Schelvan’s next plans for his Legos in the library will be a summer project. He wants to replace the paper map of the world on the wall with a Lego World Map that recently came out and also add sets from the Lego Skylines, which feature skylines from around the world, he said.

Schelvan also encouraged community members to donate any Legos they may have sitting at home. He’d like to have a tub of Legos in the library for students to use to build.