The Imagination Outfitters

826 National, co-founded by author Dave Eggers, is a fan­tas­tic non­profit ded­i­cated to help­ing stu­dents, ages 6 to 18, with expos­i­tory and cre­ative writ­ing. Their work is based on the under­stand­ing that great leaps in learn­ing can hap­pen with one-on-one atten­tion, and that strong writ­ing skills are fun­da­men­tal to future success.

They have workshop/learning cen­ters in 7 cities, each fronted by an unusual and richly imag­i­na­tive con­cept store to help raise funds, inspire cre­ativ­ity, and adver­tise their pro­grams. I knew about some of the stores but I didn’t real­ize they were all part of the same orga­ni­za­tion, or that they had a super-fun robot shop in Michi­gan, my home state!

If you hap­pen to live near one of the fol­low­ing loca­tions, you’re in for a real treat!

• The Pirate Store (San Fran­cisco, CA)
• Green­wood Space Travel Sup­ply Com­pany (Seat­tle, WA)
• Brook­lyn Super­hero Sup­ply Co. (Brook­lyn, NY)
• The Bor­ing Store (Chicago, IL)
• The Echo Park Time Travel Mart (Los Ange­les, CA)
• Lib­erty Street Robot Sup­ply & Repair (Ann Arbor, MI)
• Big­foot Research Insti­tute (Boston, MA)