From the great folks at the Decatur Makers…

The doors to Decatur Makers opened a while back, but Atlanta’s first “family-friendly” makerspace never got around to staging an official public Grand Opening — until now.

Make plans to stop by the Grand Opening on Saturday, May 6, 2017 from 1-6 p.m. This free event — open to everyone — allows you to tour the makerspace, see demonstrations of projects, and get hands-on with DIY activities including arts and crafts, woodworking, electronics and more. City of Decatur Mayor Patti Garrett will lead a ribbon-cutting ceremony unlike anything you’ve seen before.

Decatur Makers is a community makerspace where adults and school-aged kids use a wide array of tools and technologies to build things limited only by their creative inventiveness. It is located at 605 W. Ponce de Leon Avenue in downtown Decatur behind the First Christian Church, across the street from the Decatur post office.

“Thanks to the continued support of our founders, community partners, and members we have turned a nearly abandoned gym in downtown Decatur into an amazing makerspace full of equipment and tools, all utilized by a diverse and growing family of creative makers,” says Lew Lefton, Executive Director of Decatur Makers. “We are thrilled to celebrate this milestone and are proud to be part of the growing network of makerspaces in the Atlanta area and the State of Georgia.”

A weekly “Rube Goldberg Machine Build” MeetUp is scheduled every Monday in April from 7-9 p.m. at the space. This event, which will be part of the amazing ribbon cutting, is open to all members of the community — so all ages and skill sets are welcome. Details of these gatherings are available on the Events page at DecaturMakers.org.

In addition to the Monday night MeetUps, Decatur Makers hosts ongoing Open Build Nights on most Wednesdays from 7-9 p.m.  At Open Build Nights, people can tour the space, meet members, and get hands-on with a project.

Decatur Makers is still accepting memberships, including a limited time offer of multi-year Founding Memberships at varying levels for individuals and families until the end of April. Membership benefits include access to the space and it’s community, and Founding Memberships include an additional  charitable gift to the organization to help sustain it.

The maker movement promotes creating, repairing, repurposing and otherwise making things from electronics to textiles, usually around shared equipment and community space. Decatur Makers is “a welcoming community of inquisitive people who work together in a safe environment to discover, understand, design and create interesting things.”