I gotta make this clear, *I* did not put this together originally. I came along a year ago to be a project manager, something that they never had before. The heads of the non-profits might have put together the idea, and pulled some funding together, but it was my team (young, aggressive, intelligent scientists, engineers and artists) who did the back breaking work to make it actually work, and they will be the team that keeps us running from now on. THEY deserve the 14 minutes and 30 seconds in the limelight, I only want 30 seconds.
This was a place that I went to because I wanted to use their resources for my telescopes, and ended up working there because I believed in what they're trying to do and wanted to be a part of it.
Youth and adult education in the trades and manufacturing, classes on dozens of skillsets for people on the street, and full light fabrication/prototyping for local startups that have amazing ideas, but don't have a full blown manufacturing shop at their disposal.
It's also just kinda cool working in a building where we can and do build anything we want. It's like Willy Wonka for builders...including the occasional horrifying boat trip
