Rockland County store uses Legos as a building block to help adults with developmental challenges
VALLEY COTTAGE, N.Y. -- Around the world, Legos are a favorite toy with a fanatical following.
In Rockland County, they're also a building block for adults with autism and other developmental challenges.
CBS2's Tony Aiello went to a new Lego resale store that's making a difference brick by brick.
From elaborate models on bedroom shelves to loose pieces in basement bins -- many of us have a lot of Legos in the house.
Now, at Brick It Again in Valley Cottage, the toys are a tool to help workers with developmental challenges learn job skills.
"Organizing Legos, doing the cashier, taking care and then sell them. Has to be organized first," Brandon Buccellato said. "It's like a diamond mine, but it's Legos."
It's painstaking work that Buccellato does with patience and skill. He's one of the first workers at the Lego resale store run by Jawonio, an agency serving hundreds of developmentally challenged children and adults.
Brick It Again is helping clients build life and work skills.
"You know what they say -- the customer's always right," Buccellato said.
"Once you give someone an opportunity, you can really see all their abilities, and it's just for us to take that and to help them to be as independent as possible in their lives," Jawonio program officer Sara Trowers said.
Customers will find discounts on retail price for everything from simple Lego mini-figures to super complex models.
Jawonio is counting on community donations to help supply the store. If you've got a bin of Lego bricks in the basement, you can donate them at locations in New City and Yonkers.
Young shoppers will interact with the special needs workers and perhaps leave with a better appreciation of Buccellato and his coworkers.
"They're people like everybody else. They're capable of working, they contribute to our society, and they need to be valued," Jawonio CEO Randi Rios-Castro said.
The Lego resale store officially opens next week. A $300,000 grant from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation helped make the project possible.
