YuKonstruct finishes third in Instructables competition
Whitehorse makerspace misses out on $20,000 prize for first place
Despite a solid final effort in an international competition aimed posting do-it-yourself instructions online, YuKonstruct members weren't able to clinch the top prize.
The Whitehorse makerspace finished third out of 49 international makerspaces, places where people share tools and ideas.
The goal of the competition was to post as many "Instructables" as possible on the Instructables website. Instructables are step-by-step instructions that incorporate text, photos and video on topics that range as widely as the imagination.
Andrew Kalek, a YuKonstruct member, said Whitehorse was leading the pack early in the competition, but said members had to step up their efforts as the deadline drew closer.
"The first few months we actually kept it quiet among our members — we did over a hundred, or just shy of a hundred in the first two and a half months," he said.
"In the last week when we realized we were falling back, we actually did 150. So, in the last week or two we had a lot of support."
Among Yukonstruct's 252 instructables were directions on washing farm-fresh eggs and building a telescope from scratch. For third place, YuKonstruct won $100 in 3-D laser printing services.
First place, worth $20,000 in new equipment, went to a makerspace in the United Kingdom and second place went to a makerspace in Ohio. YuKonstruct was just two instructables short of second place.