The Nickalodean-esque appearance of Happen, Inc. features eye-popping colors of orange, turquoise and purple. As if the colors weren’t enough to excite children and adults walking in the door, during a recent class the room was accented by five men in lab coats and goggles ready to teach the "toy inventions" class. The lucky students in this class were under-privileged children ages eight and nine from Darby Charter School ready to learn about toy inventions and make their own super heroes in the Toy Lab next door.

"The children are put through a sequence to make something out of nothing using their imagination, taught as a game called "What’s That?". Instructed by Russell Ihrig, Joey Versoza, and Tommy Rueff, the class begins with a list of words on Velcro boards for children to brainstorm ideas for new toys. The lesson includes brainstorming, developing concepts, creating thumbnail sketches, and ends with a prototype. The teachers quickly become quickly enthralled by the animated responses and madness begins when the children exercise their imaginations.

During concepts, Versoza leads a brainstorming session that begins, "I have a jacket … and one of the sleeves come off … and you push a special button and it turns into a telescope." Versoza’s hope for the lesson is for children to expand his ideas, and it works. One child suggested the telescope turn into a bed, while another added that the bed should turn into a maid to make the bed. After a couple of other exercises, children finally scurried off to the Toy Lab to create their own toys.

This type of seemingly unstructured teaching plan empowers the children to create and stretch their imagination. This is Happen, Inc., where the mission is to create a positive environment where shared creative experiences happen that participants look back on as life changing.

"Family is important to me," said Rueff, co-founder and art director for Happen, Inc. "There should be no parents waiting on the sidelines." Along with Sean Mullaney, local toy inventor of Bang Zoom toys, Rueff began Happen, Inc. in 1999, a non-profit organization intended for children and adults to learn together. Rueff said he remembers attending a special swim class with his father where they learned to swim. Although he can only remember seconds of those moments, he knows they were happy happy. Then it dawned on him that maybe he could create that same type of learning with his specialty, art.

Today, Rueff’s goals are to make every minute, even every second an enjoyable experience for children. "Kids will remember their time here at Happen, but only certain minutes, so we have to be excited down to every second a child walks through that door."The Toy Lab is a place that feeds creativity, with walls lined with metal bins a couple of the names labeled "arms, legs, hunks ‘o’ junk and techno." Children choose up to seven pieces for Toy Lab technicians to sew together. Happen accepts donations of old toys that then hammered apart and put through a washing process before use in the lab. "It’s really hard sometimes to clean them instead of playing with them," said Rueff. Call the Toy Lab at 513-751-2345 for more information about having the Toy Lab Toy Rescue Team come to collect old toys, or to make other donations.

In the middle of the Toy Lab is a long platform with turquoise walls that reach to the waist. The lab technicians strut the catwalk, ready to work, "actually it’s more fun then work," said Rueff.

The sides of the catwalk have little aquarium windows that show the progress of children’s super heroes coming to life. One girl invents a super hero called "two-headed girl with fire," while another girl names hers "the Grinch who stole the Simpsons and Stitch." After Toy Lab technicians piece together the children’s spanking new super heroes, Rueff announces the name of each superhero and its powers in the "Activation Station" amid hoots and hollers. Rueff takes a digital picture and features the creation on the Toy Lab Web site (www.toy-lab.com). "Everything is so organized you would think it’s a franchise," said Rick Mallette, Happen helper and long-time friend of Rueff’s.

Originally, the idea for the Toy Lab came from nieces and nephews visiting Mullaney’s home and taking toy parts and putting them back together, "which is basically the same thing we are doing now," said Rueff. What began as play at Mullaney’s became a class called Extreme Toys, and it was such a hit that when the ballet school next to Happen moved, they expanded and created the Toy Lab in December 2002.

Aside from the Toy Lab, Rueff and company are excited about a new program rolling in this Spring called, the "Marks Art Cart." It is designed to enrich arts programs and special events where children will learn life skills through art. The cart itself will be "bigger than a shopping cart but smaller then a hotdog stand," said Rueff. "It has to fit through a doorway though, so there will be inflatables to make it bigger on stage."

"Marks Art Cart" will feature an Old McDonald character who thinks all geometric shapes are man-made. Then, instead of Mother Nature, T.T. Clinkscales, one of the unique countermen of Happen, plays Brother Nature and shows McDonald that shapes come from nature.

All programs at Happen feature characters, and the classroom has secret doors for characters to pop out delight children. "This one is called the Star Trek door," said Rueff with mystery as he slid open a thick, grey door on rollers. The core to Happen has three focuses; to entertain, to educate and to empower. Rueff said he wants visitors to go wild as during the process. "Brainstorming is the key," he said, "and characters are always involved."

After the Darby Charter School visit, Rueff’s next mission was to head downtown to a Christmas party hosted by Project Connect for 100 homeless children. Happen members dressed as elves helped children create ornaments with holes cut out in them. Then the elves would take Polaroids of the children to place in the ornament, so that they would become part of their own creation. This is a part of one of Happen’s programs called L’CETA (life changing experiences through art), a partnership with Project Connect. This art mentoring program brings together adults interested in serving their community and under-privileged children in Cincinnati. The idea is to build creativity through activities that teach basic skills and art awareness to promote the ability to exceed in life.

Because of his commitment to social service, Rueff recently won a Post-Corbett Award for Art Education and Outreach. And in its five years of business, Happen and Rueff have earned national acclaim. "The skies the limit as far as Happen is concerned," said Rueff. "As long as we keep focusing on the kids and the mission by providing creative outlets for children, that’s the way we are going to grow."