PRESS RELEASE

SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY IS ALIVE AND WELL IN THE GARDEN STATE

Celebration of ‘making’ draws huge crowds at over 300 locations throughout New Jersey

The 3rd Annual New Jersey Makers Day took place on Friday, March 24 and Saturday, March 25 at 306 sites across all 21 counties of New Jersey with a reported total attendance of over 85,000. Participating locations included schools, colleges and universities, libraries, museums, and other educational organizations.

This statewide event is a celebration of maker culture, and offers hands-on opportunities for creating, crafting, programming, tinkering and a large variety of STEM-based learning.

Students at High School North in Middletown joined in the celebration by building a large, round hovercraft that was big enough to ride down the hall while sitting down.

Activities at East Brunswick Public Library included embroidery, upcycling projects, learning how to use green screen video technology, and how to make video game controllers. They also featured demonstrations in lock picking and robotics. Special guests included NJ Assemblywoman Nancy Pinkin.

East Orange Public Library hosted 12 workshops over the course of a week, covering a wide range of topics like sewing, 3D printing, coding, and virtual reality.

The theme at the New Jersey State Museum was “A Prehistoric Adventure” featuring Ice Age themed making in the form of a giant diorama with participant-created landscape and creatures.

New Jersey has a rich history of technological breakthroughs and entrepreneurial spirit, ranging from Edison’s light bulb and Einstein’s theory of relativity to our 21st century manufacturers and countless inventors of tomorrow.

In a recorded message to New Jersey Makers Day participants, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) congratulated makers for being engaged in this proud New Jersey tradition of entrepreneurship and discovery.

“This is an important part of our economy,” said Sen. Booker, “an important part of job creation, an important part of innovation, and pushing the envelope of humanity. This is a day truly to celebrate, and I love that we, in New Jersey, are keeping it going.”

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About NJ Makers Day

New Jersey Makers Day began in 2015 to enhance community engagement and develop connections among New Jersey residents by collaborating with multi-type libraries, museums, small businesses and others to promote and explore new opportunities for entrepreneurship, innovation and hands-on learning experiences. In 2016, New Jersey Makers Day was expanded to be a two-day event, which allowed sites not able to host events during the weekend (like schools, colleges and universities, manufacturers, local businesses, etc.) to still be able to provide programs, demonstrations and other events for their communities.

New Jersey Makers Day is now an independent 501(c)3 non-profit corporation and a registered New Jersey Charity thereby able to accept tax-deductible donations to grow the event across the state.