Huntington’s own ‘Toy Story’: Seniors create thousands of wooden toys to donate to kids
Tucked away in the gated Huntington Landmark Community is a woodshop where residents 55 and older have built wooden toys for children throughout the county and even across oceans.
Every Tuesday, members of the Huntington Beach senior-living community cut, sand and paint wood as part of the Huntington Landmark Toymakers club.
The woodshop is a hub for different tools and machines and, for club members, a place where they get some old-fashioned elbow grease.
The club makes various toys, including doll cradles, trucks and pull toys in the shape of different animals. It started around 20 years ago when one resident took his creations from the woodshop and delivered them to children at Shriners Hospital in Los Angeles.
Since then, the group has gone on to produce thousands of toys each year.
“It started to give us something to do instead of just watching the grass grow or watching paint age,” said Jean MacLennan, 88, the club’s assistant treasurer.
Last year, the group crafted 3,574 toys. In 2014, they achieved 4,186.
Club member Ruth Williamson, 80, is keeping the tally of how many toys will be made and donated this year. She moved into the Landmark Community 17 years ago.
“I had already done ceramics and the crocheting,” Williamson said. “I came into the woodshop and asked ‘Who’s in charge? Teach me how to work every one of these machines.’”
Each toy made is first built from wood in the shop.
Then it goes to a nearby art room for a first coat of paint, then back to the woodshop for sanding and, finally, to the art room for a final coat of paint and any extra decorations. Landmark’s sewing and knitting clubs also spruce up the toys by fashioning blankets and other materials.
Both the wood and the lead-free paint used for the projects are donated to the club.
Other expenses are covered with money the club members earn from recycling plastic bottles and aluminum cans. They also receive donations from community organizations and private donors, MacLennan said.
The toys have gone to organizations such as Someone Cares Soup Kitchen in Costa Mesa and the Intervention Center for Early Childhood in Irvine, which offers therapy services for children with developmental delays.
Members of local churches going on mission trips have even packed Landmark’s toys into the empty corners of their suitcases to give them to children in China and Uganda, MacLennan said.
Last week, more than 200 toys from the woodshop were handed to students at Oak View Preschool in Huntington Beach.
“Many of my parents told me that their older children still have their toys from when they were at Oak View Preschool,” Anna Dreifus, the school’s principal, wrote in an email. “[The toymakers] are such caring, big-hearted people. I truly feel blessed knowing them and fortunate to have them as an important part of our community.”
Twitter: @AlexandraChan10
