Developing Lux Blox: Families, Friends, and a Caring Community
Lux is the culmination of husband and wife team Mike and Heather Acerra’s life long fascination with nature, architecture, science, and working with kids. In 2010 they began a project with their children and their friends called “Project Lux”. They had play groups in which they worked in a back yard maker space creating different types of toys and construction methods. The Lux Project became an obsession, and the Acerra household was taken over by the sights, sounds and smells of 3D printers, tubs and tubs of prototype construction toys, and a small army of neighborhood kids testing out ideas and drawing AutoCAD designs. By 2013 the Acerra’s submitted drafts of their first patents and began developing what would be the first Lux part. American Made The Acerra's were determined to make their product in the USA and continue to keep their company’s values centered on the families and communities that helped them develop Lux. When they first began creating the product they had the raw materials sent from factories around Illinois to a barn in the forests of Cameron , Illinois. During the summer and most of the fall of 2015, with the help of friends and children (usually only being paid in toys and pizza), they worked tirelessly, packaging, and shipping out the first Lux products. As orders began piling in from around the nation and overseas, the Acerra’s realized they needed help. In what seemed like serendipity they were approached by a local organization called Bridgeway, a not-for-profit agency, that empowers people with disabilities by offering training opportunities and the creation of meaningful employment. The folks at Bridgeway were interested in helping a new local company and were excited by the prospect of making toys. This partnership was a Godsend for the Acerras and offered their young company a manufacturing solution that met with their values of making a product in the US as close to home and with as much community involvement as possible. Today Lux products are made and supplied by partners in Missouri , Illinois, and Wisconsin, and are centralized between Galesburg and Macomb. Many of those same children and their families continue to be a vital part of the company and many of them are still working for Lux as designers, draftsman, testers, and video instructors. Lux is and will continue to be all about making connections and finding meaning through work and play. Mike Acerra
