Youth Create Games for Aug. 31 Festival

The Jablonowski siblings have brought their game building skills to the Carnival Games area at this weekend’s third Assabet Craft Beer and Food Festival.

Last year, the festival had 18 carnival games. This year, thanks to the efforts of youth such as Meredith and Joel Jablonowski, at least a half dozen more will be added.

Meredith, 18, designed and built a giant slide puzzle. With six years’ experience in theater, she’s acquired some great set-building skills that she adapted to game building. The puzzle has 10 large wooden pieces "trapped" in a custom wooden box. Puzzle players attempt to remove a red square by sliding the pieces. The puzzle is a challenge for serious competitors and will appear in the "very difficult" section of games.

Not to be outdone by his sister, Joel is working on assembling pieces for a real life Tetris game. Joel learned his woodworking skills from Jack Kline, Acton-Boxborough Regional High School’s woodworking teacher. The Tetris game will have over 50 pieces of traditional shapes to try to stack without leaving too many spaces so that the pieces don't pass the "crash" line. The Tetris game will appear in the "medium difficulty" group of games.

Joel also applied his woodworking skills and his favorite Dremel tool to the rocker base for a "beanie balance beam" game. The goal is to use one hand to arrange the beanie babies on the wiggling beam without any falls. Tests suggest that nine is a great goal for adult players, but this game will be fun for small kids too with a goal of one to three beanies.

The Assabet Craft Beer & Food Truck Festival takes place this Saturday from noon to 4pm at First Parish Church of Stow & Acton (FPC), 353 Great Rd., Stow. Admission is through a $5 to $10 donation, with all proceeds going directly to FPC to support its work in the community. Entry is free for children 12 and under. The event will proceed rain or shine. For more information, visit facebook.com/AssabetCraftBeer.