In January, Make Magazine launches Make Television -- and begins a new era in their history of inspiring young minds to innovate, tinker and grow.

Those familiar with DIY (Do It Yourself) are sure to be familiar with Make magazine. Since January 2005, Make has built a cottage industry of teaching kids and adults how to build cool projects like catapults, burrito launchers and Rube Goldberg contraptions out of everyday items lying around the house. Fun, fascinating projects made simple, made inexpensively, and made with education and entertainment in mind.

This January, Make is taking to the public airways to reach a whole new set of potential builders -- and Geek Squad just happened to be there to help make that happen.

Yes, Geek Squad is one of the major sponsors of Make Television. Some may scoff at this as a PR move, but they would be wrong. You see, the idea of inspiring young minds has always been a part of the DNA of Geek Squad's founder, Robert Stephens, and its a legacy he's passed down to the rank and file of Geek Squad Agentdom.

In 2002, Robert partnered with a local insurance agency to run a "Project Geek Squad" (yes, clever title) event. Armed with donated PCs, myself and other Geek Squad Agents, we proceeded to teach local kids in a financially distressed part of Minneapolis how to tear apart and rebuild computers. We took the time to explain to them what each part did, how they worked together, and what makes them work. 50 dollar words were banned that day -- everything was explained in plain old English.

Seeing their eyes light up that day was a magical experience for me. Computers went from something akin to rocket science to "hey, I can do this!" for more than one attendee, and when the kids went home that day, many of them told of a desire to fix computers for a living when they grew up.

While we've expanded on this concept with our Geek Squad Summer Academy (12 locations across the United States this past summer), we continue to look for ways we can open the minds of children to the power of knowledge and technology as a potential career. With that in mind, its no surprise for us to be so gung-ho about Make Magazine, and the launch of its video arm -- Make Television.

Look for Make Television on your local public broadcast station beginning in January 2009. Tell a kid in your neighborhood about the show. Let your local school district know about it as well. Open a young mind to the power of technology and creativity. You never know the impact you may Make.