{"id":41143,"date":"2022-10-27T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=41143"},"modified":"2022-10-27T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T10:00:00","slug":"mountview-teacher-strives-to-win-lego-master-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2022\/10\/27\/mountview-teacher-strives-to-win-lego-master-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Mountview teacher strives to win LEGO Master competition"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Ken Cleveland <\/b>
\n Landmark Correspondent<\/i><\/div>\n

\n Chris Yurkus shows off a batch of freshly baked Brew Biscuits, hot from the oven at his Holden home.<\/b>\n <\/p>\n

HOLDEN \u2014 Liz Puleo teaches music at Mountview Middle School.<\/p>\n

But she is playing a different tune Wednesday nights on the Fox show LEGO Masters.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy students are aware of my LEGO obsession,\u201d Puleo said. \u201cAnd as for fame, they still know me as their choral teacher, and I don\u2019t think it fazes them at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there is a lesson in those LEGO bricks, especially among the estimated 250,000-plus she owns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students\u2019 reactions have varied,\u201d she said. \u201cSome are very interested and impressed, while others are clearly sick of hearing me talk about LEGO.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor teaching opportunities, I use it more to show that we are complex humans with vast interests. A choral director doesn\u2019t exactly seem like someone who is \u2018into\u2019 LEGO, whereas a STEM teacher or art teacher would make more sense in their minds,\u201d Puleo said, adding \u201cArtistic expression comes in many forms, and LEGO is a great outlet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Puleo started her LEGO connection early.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been around LEGO my entire life. My older brother was a huge LEGO fan from a young age, and I grew up with a basement full of it. While I didn\u2019t play with it often, I was always in awe of the sets, and what he could do to create his own world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I had children of my own, I started playing with it more and building for them. When COVID happened, I turned to LEGO as therapy and started building more for myself than for my kids,\u201d Puleo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is also when I met lots of other adult fans of LEGO online and discovered the adult world of LEGO and conventions with My Own Creations (MOC). The LEGO group had also started coming out with their \u2018adults welcome\u2019 line of products, from mosaics to large intricate sets with motors and complicated build techniques which not only interested me, but also my husband.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show presents teams of LEGO Masters with challenges, such as \u201cJurass-brick World\u201d or \u201cReady To Launch,\u201d but each team has its own take on the best build.<\/p>\n

The same holds true for her other builds.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy approach to a project varies, from what bricks I have available to what is the purpose of the project. Sometimes it\u2019s for fun, sometimes for function, and others are for show,\u201d Puleo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy inspirations have come from my children and my own passions, to emulating what others have done and trying to make it my own. I\u2019m a fan of fantasy and escape, along with lots of color and intricate detail,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In order to build, she needs LEGO bricks, and she has collected a few over the years. That 250,000 number can\u2019t be too far off.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re talking sets,\u201d she said, she owns \u201csomewhere close to 500, and for individual bricks, there\u2019s too many to count, but I would guess more than 250,000 between the sets and bulk lots that I have purchased over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of her numerous builds, she said, \u201cFor me, my favorite has been the Jurassic World build from Episode 2 of the show. It was reminiscent of the Elsa Castle build that won me my first award, but also at a much higher skill level than I was previously able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her current role on the the third season of the Fox show comes after an earlier connection.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe casting producers actually reached out to me for season 2 after seeing some of my early MOC\u2019s in forums online, and then I met former contestants at my first convention in Virginia. That is also where I proudly displayed my first large scale MOC of Elsa\u2019s castle and showed that I had what it takes to compete for the title of LEGO Master,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen season 3 was announced and they called, I didn\u2019t think I had a chance, but I decided to go through with the audition process anyway,\u201d Puleo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter watching seasons 1 and 2, it was shocking to me that there were other moms out there who built for themselves. Growing up with my brother, and seeing the LEGO Movie, it was always portrayed as a man\u2019s world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe show inspired me to build, and my thought was perhaps I could show that anyone could enjoy it and express themselves, no matter what age or what background. While I had only been building for a couple years, there was such a wealth of information available that I felt I could do anything,\u201d Puleo said.<\/p>\n

With builds that test the bounds of the possible, the show pits experienced builders against one another.<\/p>\n

The most intense moment, Puleo said, was in episode 3, \u201cwatching our build on the bucking bull; that was insane. We had no idea if we\u2019d survive level 1, never mind level 7,\u201d an accomplishment that helped Puleo and teammate Erin Laundry move on in the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tension was insurmountable, and the relief and pure joy after was felt by anyone who watched,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Getting national exposure catches the attention of people in the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cFeedback has been very positive. In Holden, it was tough to leave my students for two months to go and film, but I had a wonderful administration that supported me the entire time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere hasn\u2019t been much change since the show aired. The school is only getting somewhat back to normal since COVID, so there\u2019s not much fanfare or celebration. The timing of the show being on so late at night limits our abilities to do much at Mountview.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it was supposed to air in May, there were talks of maybe doing a whole school watch party, or some other community event, but the move to 9 p.m. in the fall made that not happen,\u201d Puleo said.<\/p>\n

In her hometown of Hudson, Puleo said, \u201cit\u2019s a different story. My son has been blossoming at school and is so honored that his principal has mentioned his mom not only in her newsletters home, but also on their morning announcements. The community message boards are aflutter with well wishes and positivity for representing our little town.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since she first saw her brother\u2019s LEGO building, things have changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cLEGO is a complete lifestyle nowadays, from clothing, to music and yes, vacation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been touring the country going to different conventions and experiencing all LEGO has to offer. Our lives have been completely changed by LEGO, our Disney vacation was turned into a LEGO Land vacation, and our game room basement is now a LEGO Land basement,\u201d Puleo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur family takes trips to the local LEGO store on new release days, and we are aware of all the goings on at headquarters in Denmark. I\u2019ve made new friends around the world thanks to LEGO, and have been granted opportunities to meet all walks of life through our passions for this little brick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her experiences have been positive, she said, with a little plastic brick whose name is an abbreviation of the two Danish words leg godt, <\/i>meaning \u201cplay well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really thankful for the opportunity to share my love of LEGO with the world through this experience,\u201d Puleo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve grown a greater appreciation for those who work in the television industry, and how these programs are made. My fellow contestants have become my second family, and we converse every day about anything and everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll things being said, I\u2019m grateful to have had the experience, and it is a time I will never forget and look back upon fondly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Yurkus shows off a batch of freshly baked Brew Biscuits, hot from the oven at his Holden home. HOLDEN \u2014 Liz Puleo teaches music at Mountview Middle School.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}