The STEAMery

08/08/2026

In the morning, the Greenhouse Grow Lab was waist high in weeds. By mid afternoon, you could see major progress.

About 20 volunteers from Cook Medical spent the day in Helmsburg alongside 10 of our STEAMery crew. In roughly five hours they cleared and raked the greenhouse floor, cut the vines and saplings off the long block wall, opened up the lot behind the building, pulled the old benches out of the lab room and washed it down, worked on the greenhouse end walls, laid matting so the greenhouse doorway rolls wheelchair accessible end to end, and built a picnic table on top of all that.

Swipe through the before and afters. Same building, five hours apart.

Thank you, Cook Medical and all of our STEAMery volunteers (Scott Damer, David Watters, Michelle Amsden Flick, Bob Blass, Tommy, Courtney Gosser, John Tiernan, Dylan and Norah Tiernan, Jason and Rachel Kidwell. Follow along here for all of our Greenhouse Lab progress!

07/28/2026

Brown County small business owners: Project Fish Cohort 1 applications are open.

This 10-week STEAMery program, led by local instructor Kara Hammes, helps you put AI to work in your own business: practical tools, real skills, and work time built into every session so you leave with things actually done. A donor has also fully funded several scholarship seats for business owners who couldn't otherwise participate, so cost doesn't have to be the reason you sit this out.

Applications are reviewed as they come in. Apply at thesteamery.org.

07/26/2026

Email [email protected] to be part of the first STEAMery greenhouse lab workday this TUESDAY!

06/06/2026

That’s a wrap on our Sparks eGamer Girls eSports program.

This program was about more than gaming. It gave the girls a place to compete, collaborate, think strategically, build confidence, and see themselves as part of the growing world of esports, technology, and digital careers.

A huge thank you to our coaches, Grant Gaddis and John Tiernan, for showing up with patience, energy, and leadership. You helped create a space where the girls could learn, laugh, improve, and belong.

We are also deeply grateful to the supporters who made this program possible: Cummins Inc, Mike and Jaydene Laros, and Steve and Debbie Biehle Hackman. Your investment helped open doors for these students and gave them access to an experience they will remember.

Thank you to the parents for driving, encouraging, coordinating, and supporting the girls throughout the season.

Thank you to Hard truth Distillery for hosting us and giving the team a great space to gather and celebrate. Thank you to Bob Blass for the awesome graphics and design!

And thank you to Kids on Track and CoForce for helping make the field trip to IMS possible. That experience helped connect esports, technology, teamwork, and real-world career pathways in a way the girls could see and feel.

We are proud of this team. Proud of the growth. Proud of the courage. Proud of the spark.

Sparks eGamer Girls are just getting started.

05/28/2026

Join us for an AI class this upcoming Monday night at the CRC!

Make AI Work for You: A Hands-On Class for Adults
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​​Curious about AI but not sure where to start? Join us at the CRC on Monday, June 1 for a practical, beginner-friendly class with AI expert Craig Marchand. This is not a tech lecture. It is a session about you. You will leave with a personal AI setup you can use in any tool, whether ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, so it understands how you think, communicate, and work. No experience needed. Just bring a phone or laptop!

⏰ Monday, June 1 @ 5:30 PM
📍Career Resource Center: 260 Schoolhouse Lane, Nashville

05/24/2026

Two weeks ago, Mike Shank and the Meyer Shank Racing IndyCar team took time out of their Month of May to talk with our Sparks Gamer Girls in the paddock at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Today, that same team won the 110th Indianapolis 500.

Congratulations to Felix Rosenqvist, the No. 60 crew, and the entire Meyer Shank Racing organization on an unforgettable victory, with both cars finishing inside the top five. We are beyond thrilled for them.
And we are still thinking about what their visit meant. In the most demanding stretch of their season, with two cars to prepare for the biggest race in the world, this team stopped to show a group of girls from Brown County how their operation runs and what a career in motorsports actually looks like. The people who did that just won the Indy 500.

None of it happens without Kids on Track and CoForce, who opened the door and made this day possible for our team.
Thank you for believing these girls belonged in that paddock.

A girl who started this season on a gaming laptop met the team that would go on to win the greatest race in the world. That is the entire idea behind this program.

Thank you and congratulations, Meyer Shank Racing IndyCar & IMSA GTP Fan Page.

thesteamery.org

05/11/2026

From gaming laptops to the bricks. Our Sparks Gamer Girls closed Year 1 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with full paddock access through the Kids on Track program. They met drivers, toured a Honda Racing transporter, held real Firestone race tires, and saw firsthand how data and engineering drive the sport. Thank you, and the crew at , for making the day happen.

04/26/2026

The STEAMery is developing a new pilot program called Project Fish, and we are looking for AI-comfortable volunteers to help shape it.

Project Fish fits directly with our mission: hands-on STEAM education, technology access, workforce development, creativity, and practical opportunity for Brown County.

We have already received a $25,000 donor gift to help fund the first version of the program. Now we are building the volunteer and planning team.

Project Fish is not just an AI class.

It is a pilot testing whether we can help people build more income stability by teaching them how to create AI-supported digital assets and small business models they own.

Project Fish is testing an idea: can we pursue the goals of income stability by helping people build their own income-producing systems?

Participants would not receive cash. They would receive tools, training, coaching, technology access, and accountability.

Examples could include niche websites, newsletters, digital products, AI-supported social media services, small business landing pages, or simple online business assets.

We will be opening applications soon for candidates for the first Project Fish cohort. The first cohort will be small so we can test the model, support participants closely, and measure outcomes before expanding.

We are also looking for volunteers with experience or comfort in AI tools, websites, Canva, digital marketing, online publishing, small business, social media, e-commerce, teaching, or coaching beginners.

You do not need to be an expert. We need practical people who want to help Brown County residents learn, build, and participate in the future of work.

If you are interested in volunteering or being notified when cohort applications open, please comment below or message The STEAMery. More info on our website: https://www.thesteamery.org/projectfish

04/04/2026

Second Story Studio has done such an among job with this program! We’re so glad to have them and the kids on board! Thank you, Peaceful Valley Heritage and Preservation for funding the program!

03/23/2026

Year 3 of BOTS Club is well underway at Helmsburg Elementary, and these kids are building real things.

Every Thursday, grades 3–5 students are learning to code in Scratch, exploring how AI makes decisions, and debugging their own games, start to finish. The program wraps up with a showcase at the Brown County Fair where students present their completed projects. Huge credit to Chelsea Busby and Purdue Extension Brown County for taking over this program!

This is hands-on computer science education, right here in our community and completely free for families and school.