It’s St. Patrick’s Day weekend and a lot of people will be out celebrating. Safety officials are reminding residents to party responsibly and to be sure to have a safe ride home.

As part of the effort to keep everyone safe, the Washington Regional Alcohol Program is offering revelers free rides (up to a $20 value) through its SoberRide campaign. The program is open to everyone throughout the Washington region through 4 a.m. Saturday.

To get the free ride, use the Lyft app and enter the promo code SOBERRIDE.

Partying or not, though, there will be plenty of things to do in the Reston area this weekend. Here are just some of the options available.

• The Reston Community Center (2310 Colts Neck Road) will host its annual spring flea market Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon. The free event is available to residents of all ages. For more information, call 703-476-4500.
• The fourth annual Maker Faire NoVa is Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., at South Lakes High School and Langston Hughes Middle School. Tickets at the door will be $15 for adults, $12 for senior citizens and $5 for children. Family packs of five tickets will be $40.
• Teen job fairs and resume-building workshops will be offered Saturday by Fairfax County at Chantilly High School (4201 Stringfellow Road) from 10 a.m. to noon, and at Oakton High School (2900 Sutton Road, Vienna) from 1-3 p.m.
• Reston Town Center is hosting “Family Fun Saturdays” throughout March to benefit Opportunity Neighborhood: Reston. This week’s schedule features horse-drawn carriage rides, free funnel cakes and a performance by the McGrath Academy of Irish Dance. The event will go from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday.
• The opening reception of Greater Reston Arts Center’s “Emerging Visions” exhibit is set for 6-8 p.m. Saturday. The show features curated works of art created by Fairfax County students from South Lakes, Herndon and Oakton high schools, and it will be on display through April 1.
• The Social Justice & Peace Conference will be Saturday from 12:30-6 p.m. at United Christian Parish (11508 North Shore Drive). The free event will include workshops on how people from different religious backgrounds can support immigrants, the trans community, environmental justice and more.
• A bird walk at Sunrise Valley Wetlands and Polo Fields will be offered from 7:30-10:30 a.m. Sunday. Check out Reston Association’s WebTrac for more information.
• Reston Community Players’ will put on “Rock of Ages” tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m., as well as Sunday at 2 p.m. at CenterStage (2310 Colts Neck Road). Use the password “St. Paddy’s” when purchasing tickets for tonight’s show by phone or in person to get them for $10. Regular tickets for each performance of the show, which will run through April 1, are $25.
• A Kennedy Center Production of “From the Mouths of Monsters” will be performed at Herndon High School (700 Bennett St.) tonight at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m.; and at 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for students and children.
• Reston Regional Library (11925 Bowman Towne Drive) will be visited by Frying Pan Farm Park on Saturday from 11 a.m. to noon, featuring animal education, stories and crafts. For adults, the lecture series on World War I will continue at 2 p.m. Sunday.
• Kalypso’s (1617 Washington Plaza N.) will have live music tonight for St. Patrick’s Day, with Mark Scott from 4-8 p.m. followed by Sam Gunderson from 9 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.
• ArtSpace Herndon (750 Center St.) will have the opening reception for its exhibit “There’s No Place Like Home,” by members of the Great Falls Studios, from 3-5 p.m. Sunday. The show will be on display through April 8.
• The Reston Town Center Singles Meetup group has an event scheduled for tonight at Ned Devine’s Irish Bar & Restaurant (2465 Centreville Road, Herndon). Shake 3X will perform at the restaurant from 9:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.

Engineers, artists, scientists and more will bring their latest creations to Reston later this month.

The fourth annual Maker Faire NoVa event will take place Sunday, March 19 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at South Lakes High School and Langston Hughes Middle School.

Featured “makers” at this year’s event will include HackRVA with their giant spirograph, miniature racing quadcopters and more; and DorkPod with their experimental personal-mobility device, among others. More than 100 makers in total are expected to share their knowledge through hands-on projects, demonstrations, workshops and more. Robotics, drones and 3D printers are just some of the many types of technology expected to be on display.

From a press release:

“Maker Faire is a gathering of fascinating, curious people who enjoy learning and who love sharing what they can do. From engineers to artists to scientists to crafters, the Maker Faire provides an opportunity for ‘makers’ to show hobbies, experiments and projects. Tagged ‘The Greatest Show (& Tell) on Earth,’ this glimpse of the future and inspiration is a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity and resourcefulness.”

The event was known as the Mini Maker Faire in previous years. The “mini” has been dropped from the name this year as the event’s scale and scope have expanded, according to the press release.

In 2016, nearly 200 Maker Faire events were held worldwide.

Advance tickets are $2 for children ages 2-18 and $13 for adults ($10 for seniors) and can be purchased online. Ticket prices increase by $2 at the door. A family ticket package is also available.

Photo from 2015 Mini Maker Faire event by Jennifer van der Kleut

See how things fly, gears that go and inventions that are just plain cool as the NoVa Mini Maker Faire — a gathering of more than one hundred inventors, craftspeople, hackers and others who “make things” — returns to Reston Sunday.

The regionwide family-friendly event calls itself “the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth-a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker Movement. It’s a place where people show what they are making, and share what they are learning.”

The Mini Maker Faire runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Langston Hughes Middle School and South Lakes High School.

Makers will share their knowledge through hands-on projects for adults and
children on topics ranging from blacksmithing and primitive skills to 3D printing, drones and robots to creative reuse of recycled materials to creative art-making, say Mini Maker Faire organizers.

The event is organized by Nova Labs of Reston.

Makers will be grouped in neighborhoods by their topic. Neighborhoods include: Young Makers, Drone Zone, Robotics, 3D Printing, Science Lab, Fiber Alley, Sustainability Village, and more.

See the whole list of makers on the event’s website.

Advance tickets are available online now. Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for children through Saturday. New this year is a family ticket $40, which is good for a family of 5 and is available only in advance. Tickets at the door are $20 for adults and $8 for children.

NoVA Mini Maker Faire 2015/file photo by Jennifer van der Kleut

Langston Hughes Middle and South Lakes High schools were swarming with families on Sunday as the second annual NoVa Mini Maker Faire returned to Reston.

Part of the popular Maker Faire nationwide network of events, the NoVa Mini Maker Faire is geared toward school-age kids, celebrating innovation, imagination and the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math) and showing kids that science can be fun.

More than 100 booths featuring interactive activities and demonstrations were spread out across the campuses of the two Reston schools. Popular attractions included the chance to fly drones and pilot robots to perform small tasks, watching a 3-D printer churn out objects like a chess set and other figurines, making art out of yarn and recycled materials, building Lego towers and duct-tape forts, and much more.

There was even a blacksmithing demonstration by high school students, where the crowd got to watch them pound fire-hot iron into objects like coat hooks and swords.

The calendar’s proximity to summer made booths like Activity Rocket quite popular as well, as many parents welcomed the opportunity to read up on science and art camps for their kids taking place this year.

“I really think my son would love one of these camps, like the Lego camp or the computer programming camp, so I was very excited to see them handing out information at the Faire today,” said Candy Schmidt of Reston, the mom of a 8-year-old.

One prominent theme of this year’s faire was to encourage more girls to get excited about entering the STEM fields, as organizers said the fields still tend to be very male-heavy at many schools and companies across the country. One such booth was the GEMS organization, or Girls Excited About Math and Science, which offered fun, quick projects with electronics.

Photo gallery by Jennifer van der Kleut

South Lakes High School and Langston Hughes Middle School were filled with people of all ages inventing, exploring and, well, making things at the Nova Mini Maker Faire on Sunday.

The Mini Maker Faire is part of a nationwide movement to encourage innovation and creativity.

The local event was sponsored by Nova Labs, a non-profit Maker Space in Reston. Nova Labs has a regular mission to provide the community a workshop where people can learn, teach, and collaborate on creative and technical works, and to promote the usefulness of competence in the technical arts, says Nova Labs president Brian Jacoby.

Sunday’s event had hands-on booths and activities from more than 100 makers exploring engineering, physics and other science areas, as well as creative crafting.

Photos by Frank Sogandares. 

Hundreds of inventors, students, crafters and people who want to learn about them are expected at South Lakes High School and Langston Hughes Middle School Sunday for the inaugural Nova Mini Maker Faire.

The Mini Maker Faire is the idea of Nova Labs, a non-profit Maker Space in Reston. Nova Labs has a regular mission to provide the community a workshop where people can learn, teach, and collaborate on creative and technical works, and to promote the usefulness of competence in the technical arts, says Nova Labs president Brian Jacoby.

Nova Labs regularly hosts learning sessions on robotics, electronics, 3D printing, programming, woodworking, yarn & fabric arts and many other maker topics.  Different memberships level offer opportunities to learn from others and used the lab’s space, tools and equipment.

The Mini Maker Faire expands on that mission.

“All kids — and adults — need more encouragement to follow their curiosity and be innovative problem solvers,” Jacoby said in a press release. “The Mini Maker Faire celebrates working with raw materials, engaging kids’ minds, and helping them to become critical thinkers.”

Here is what you need to know:

* The event runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

* Tickets are $8 for children and $20 for adults.

* There will be more than 99 booths with all sorts of hands-on activities. Among them:

• Aluminum Aerogami (a combination of origami and model airplane building from aluminum cans)
• 3D scanning and printing of you
• Musical instrument maker
• Snoopy Robot
• Solar- powered Car
• Light-up sewing
• Hand-spinning yarn
• Kinetic, wearable, and electronic art
• Science experiments you can do at home by Gravity is Optional
• Spy gadgets by the International Spy Museum

Visit the Mini Maker Faire website for a full list of makers.

* NOTE: There will be no parking at the schools. Shuttle buses will run from the Herndon Monroe Park and Ride.

More information can be found on this map of the schools or on the Mini Maker Faire website.

Photo: Students from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology will have a rocketry exhibit where others can try out stomp rockets at the Nova Mini Maker Faire Saturday. Credit: Nova Mini Maker Faire.