It has come to my attention recently, through a reliable
resource, that the Kansas City Toys for Tots Organization will only accept new
store-bought toys in the original cardboard packaging. They will not accept
hand-crafted toys such as wooden ones made by a local woodworkers guild.
Now that seems a shame, because those kind of toys were precisely
the ones I sought for my son when he was younger (he's now 27) as they held up
better than the cheap plastic toys, took more imagination to play with and
didn't have to have costly batteries all the time in order to work. In fact, we
still have many of his wooden toys in a basket under the coffee table for the
some-day grandchildren to play with. All my friends' grand-children know where
that basket is when they come over to my house. There is a wooden shoe lovingly
made by a girlfriend's husband when my son was learning to tie his shoes and I
later had it with me when I was teaching my Pre-K Sunday School class. My
sister painted a bunch of wooden cars for his Christmas one year. The same
girlfriend above and I painted wooden houses together for a village so his
wooden cars would have something to drive to. We were making toys and memories.
I have a wooden nativity set, Noah's ark figures and animals.
We searched historical museum gift shops for wooden toys and
once bought a wooden climbing bear from Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO.
Wooden puzzles stand up better than cardboard ones and my toddler son loved
building with his wooden blocks and knocking them over.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, as a crafter, if you are
going to donate items to any organization, go to the top and find out precisely
to the letter what their rules are. The woodworkers guild I mentioned above
were heartsick when they found out Toys for Tots threw their wooden toys away
after spending so much time, effort, and material to make them. After that,
they did their homework and found another organization who was absolutely
delighted to accept their hand-crafted toys.
Merry Christmas Everyone and a Happy New Year!
That is very sad that those handmade wooden toys were tossed. You would think a polite no thank you when they were donating would have been much better. I have a stash of wooden toys that were once the kids and now ready for the day that grandkids come to visit.
ReplyDeleteOn another note at our local museum where I volunteer it is only small and there is a lady that is transcribing some letters. I get to type up the monthly bulletins which always has an interesting story. How interesting that an Aussie letter was printed in a magazine back in 1965. Thats the year I came to be. :-) Take care.