Toy Packing Event - Dec. 7, 2013

INTRODUCTION.

The Toymakers in the Rapid City Woodworking Association (RCWA) have been working all year to finish the toys in time for Christmas giving.  This year, this small group of 20 Toymakers finished over 2000 handcrafted wooden toys, all of which will be delivered Dec 7 -10th to local charitable organizations who work with children in the Black Hills and Sioux Falls areas. 

The toys made this year were packed for delivery this Saturday morning Dec 7, 2013, in the shop at the Club for Boys and will then be delivered (at no cost) to 18 organizations in South Dakota.   Most of the toys were delivered on Saturday.  The last group of toys will be delivered on Tuesday, Dec 10, 2013, at 9 am to the Youth and Family Services office on Plaza Drive in Rapid City.  We will also have an opportunity to pass out the toys to the children at the facility.

TOY PROGRAM.

The Toy Program is a large part of the Rapid City Woodworkers Association activity calendar.   Toy production starts in January of each year and continues all the way up to Toy Packing Day the first week of December.   Activities leading up to the Toy Packing Event for the Rapid City Woodworkers Association Toy Program included numerous daily workshops at individual members shops for preparing parts, and weekend workshops for assembling parts into completed toys.   In October each year, we begin the weekly weekend workshops to complete the toys for delivery to kids by early December.

One of the preparation activities includes making cloth bags to hold wooden critters cut by members using scroll saws.  Several members of the group work all year making the cloth bags.  The last thing in this production effort involves packing each cloth bag with a number of wooden critters.  On Dec 1, 2013, this effort was completed as shown below:



(Clicking on any photo will bring up a gallery of all photos in this blog.)

This year we moved our completed toy inventory consisting of over 2000 handmade wooden toys to the sorting area in the Kitchen of the Club for Boys on Dec 2, 2013.  The temperature during the move was in the low 60's.



This was the temperature on Packing Day - which is why we moved toys on Dec 2nd.

TOY PACKING.

On Dec 7, 2013 at 9 am, we assembled our crew of pickers, inventory expediters, and packers in the Kitchen of the Club for Boys and began the most enjoyable part of the Toy Program.  We packed over 120 boxes of toys for delivery to 18 organizations in the Black Hills and Sioux Falls areas.

The picking line included 22 different categories of toys lined up on tables.  A team of members with a toy pick list and a clipboard started down the line filling the box according to the pick list. 

Inventory expediting was handled by Gary K, while team members Julian, Larry, Darwin and Lauree filled the toy pick lists.

 

 

The pickers move the open boxes of toys to the packing area where the packers start packing each box in preparation for transportation to the local organizations.  The packers ensure that the toys all fit inside the box and then tape each box so that it can be moved safely to its destination.   Each box is marked with the box number and the organization number.

 

 

Rick is supervising the packing effort - his elves included Grant, Frank, Levi and Steve.

 

With lots of room to spare, the effort was completed in under two and a half hours.

 

 

Members who helped pack toys today were Lon, Julian, Gary and Denise, Darwin and Lauree, Steve, Rick, Grant, Frank, Gary G, Larry D, Levi, and Kathie and Bob.

 

Detailed Press Release Information

For the 6th year in a row, the Rapid City Woodworkers Association will be donating handmade wooden toys to the following organizations in the Black Hills and Sioux Falls areas:

Youth & Family Services - Prenatal to Five Headstart Programs (9 at various locations)

Youth & Family Services - Boys Health Advocacy Program

Black Hills Area Habitat for Humanity

The Club for Boys

Working Against Violence Inc

Benji's House

Ellsworth Air Force Base - Airmen and Family Readiness Center

The HOPE Center

LOVE Inc.

Needs Free - Sioux Falls 

The Toymakers in the Rapid City Woodworking Association (RCWA) have been working all year to finish the toys in time for Christmas giving.  This year, this small group of 20 Toymakers finished over 2000 handcrafted wooden toys, all of which will be delivered next week to local charitable organizations who work with children in the Black Hills and Sioux Falls areas. 

 

The toys made this year will be packed for delivery this Saturday morning Dec 7, 2013, in the shop at the Club for Boys and then delivered (at no cost) to 18 organizations in South Dakota.   Most of the toys will be delivered that same day.  The last group of toys will be delivered on Tuesday, Dec 10, 2013, at 9 am to the Youth and Family Services office on Plaza Drive in Rapid City.  We will also have an opportunity to pass out the toys to the children at the facility.

 

In 2008, the group made and gave over 300 toys for the Club for Boys, WAVI, and Benji’s House.  The number of toys produced since then has increased each year.  For those interested in numbers, a summary of the toy making progress is shown below:

 

Year	Toys
2008	300
2009	1260
2010	1430
2011	1620
2012	2001
2013	2271
	8882

The organization receiving over 1/3 of the toys is the Youth and Family Services in the Black Hills.  Almost 700 children are involved in the Youth and Family Services in the Black Hills from as far north as Spearfish and as far south as Edgemont.  The woodworkers have received very positive feedback from all organizations that have received the toys; they are excited that they have been included in our toy program.  Another 1/3 of the toys will be delivered to an organization called Needs Free in Sioux Falls.  This organization works with a large number of child-oriented programs.

If anyone would like to help build and assemble toys for the 2014 Toy Program, we can always use an extra hand.  Members donate their time and equipment, but we can use donations of surplus wood or monetary donations for operating expenses.  We have recently moved our Toymaking shop to the Club for Boys at 320 N 4th Street St in Rapid City, SD.  This gives us additional opportunities to work directly with kids on woodworking projects.  Call Bob Buchanan at 348-2865 or check our website  http://www.sdwoodworker.org/ for more information:  Monetary donations can be mailed to our RCWA Treasurer, Julian Wigen at 3010 Morningview Drive in Rapid City, SD, 57702.

The mission of the RCWA is to promote woodworking safety, skills and knowledge, for the amateur, professional and student craftsperson.  The RCWA was formed to meet the needs of the woodworkers in the Rapid City area.  We meet on the 2nd Monday of the month at 7:00 p.m. at the Our Redeemer Lutheran Church at 910 Wood Ave in Rapid City.  We cordially invite men and women of all ages who have an interest in woodworking to attend our meetings.  No experience is necessary for membership.  Membership dues are $18 a year.  Please come and share the experience, ideas, techniques and the mutual enjoyment of creating with wood.

The RCWA is a local chapter of the South Dakota Woodworkers Guild.  The RCWA exists for two main reasons: (1) To exchange information that will enhance the enjoyment and skills of woodworking; and (2) To promote woodworking as a hobby, as a profession, or anywhere in between.  This includes promoting woodworking safety, teaching and helping other members, enhancing the quality of life for underprivileged children of the Black Hills by making and distributing wooden toys to charitable organizations in the local area, and supporting community service organizations thru volunteer woodworking activities. 

For more information, contact Bob Buchanan at (605) 348-2865 or Rick Weisbeck at (605) 431-7375.  Or go to our website at www.sdwoodworker.org.

 

To get to the HOME PAGE of the Rapid City Woodworking Association website, click on the link below:

https://sites.google.com/site/sdguildrcwa2/home

 

 the end