December 2009 - RCWA General Meeting - FAMILY POTLUCK DINNER

The December 2009 meeting of the Rapid City Woodworkers Association was a FAMILY POTLUCK held fireside at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church at 910 Wood Ave in Rapid City, SD. Lots of food and lots of chatting - a very enjoyable event! Merry Christmas! See you in the New Year!

Smoked Turkey - by Grant Coffin
A slide show set to music was ready to be played at the POTLUCK, but due to technical difficulties with our DVD player, it could not be shown. However, the slide show is shown here: The RCWA - Year in Review - 2009. Enjoy!

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Toy Delivery to Youth and Family Services 12-9-09

In sub-zero temperatures, the toymakers from the Rapid City Woodworkers Association made their last delivery of 630 toys to the Youth and Family Services in Rapid City, SD.

Local Media was on location to record the event!

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TOY DISTRIBUTION DAY - Dec 5, 2009

Toys were boxed up and are now ready for delivery to organizations in the Rapid City area with plenty of time for personnel in red Santa hats to pack up and prepare them for Christmas giving! Toys were delivered to the Black Hills Habitat for Humanity on Saturday. Toys were delivered to the Sioux Falls area Needs Free organization on Saturday morning as well. Toys will be delivered to the Airmen Readiness Center, The Club for Boys, WAVI, and Benji's House on Monday. The remaining toys will be delivered to Youth and Family Services on Wednesday. These toys will go to over 600 children in the YFS program from ages newborn to 5 years old in Black Hills locations as far north as Spearfish and as far south as Edgemont.

Many thanks to all who worked so diligently over the past year and especially over the last six weeks to complete over 1200 toys to give to underpriviledged children in South Dakota.


Click here http://www.sdwoodworker.org/ to learn more about the Rapid City Woodworkers Assocation.

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Toy Distribution Preparations

This past week we have been preparing for the big event on Saturday - the day we distribute all the toys we have been building since January 2009. Because the temperature dropped into the teens on Wednesday, we relocated the spraying efforts from the backyard "green house" to Wilkinson Custom Cabinets in Black Hawk spray booth to finish the last items. We then set up the RCWA Shop with a line of toys to be ready to easily pack up the Christmas boxes with the appropriate toys for the appropriate receivers. Thursday afternoon we contacted each organization to set up a delivery time on Monday Dec 7, 2009.

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Toymaking Workshop - Nov 28, 2009

In preparation for this weekend's toy workshop, all animal cutouts were checked over for the last time, any squawks found were corrected, they were sanded for the last time, eyes painted on turtles and rocking horses, and all animals sorted and counted. On Saturday morning, Nov. 28th, 2009, the animals were packed into cotton bags, four to a bag in preparation for toy distribution on Dec 5th. At the end of the morning, over 100 bags were completed and ready for kids.

Today's workshop was the last workshop for 2009 - the end of the year-long toy making efforts by the toymakers of the Rapid City Woodworkers Association. The goal for today was to complete the basketball games for the toy distribution to happen next Saturday, Dec 5th, 2009. Our local WENDY's generously donated a case of spoons to be used as basketball launchers, and all the parts were completed before this workshop. We started the day with a team of two working to assemble the hoops to the backboards, another team assembling the launcher pads to the bases, and a third team working with the final assembly jigs. The setup included two nail guns, one for the 5/8 inch nails for the backboard to post, and one for the 1 " nails for the base to post. As parts rolled off the end of the line, a new team was formed to install the string/ball assembly to the completed game assembly. At the end of the afternoon, we had completed 96 basketball games. With only a few minor technical problems, the event was a major success!

Weather permitting next week, we will put a finish coat of laquer on the basketball games, in time for toy distribution on Saturday morning, Dec 5th, 2009.

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