Roger Bares Receives Master Toymaker Award

Wednesday evening, November 21, 2012, the Scrollsaw Special Interest Group gathering was held in Roger Bares shop.  During the event, Roger was presented with somewhat of a lifetime achievement award for his involvement in the Toy Program for the Rapid City Woodworkers Association.  Roger has been a key figure in the production of hundreds of toys since 2008 when the Toy Program was started.

Roger came to some of the first meetings of the RCWA as it was being organized.  I had been given a plan for a small tractor from a magazine, so I asked Roger if he wanted to see if it was something we could make for the toy program.  A few days later, Roger brought 12 tractors to the meeting.   So needless to say, the first toys Roger put into production were the small tractor. The tractors turned out to be a sturdy, simple toy, and we all  thought it would work well for young kids.  So Roger went home and got busy.  The next time we saw him a couple weeks later, he had cut out enough parts to make 300 tractors!  And it only got better from there.

Roger cut and finished a large number of rocking chairs, heart boxes, and turtle banks for the Toy Program over the past four years.  Then he branched off and made several sets of larger vehicles including firetrucks, log trucks, road graders, semi trucks with trailers, coupes, sedans, pickups, buses,  old cars, and a larger tractor.  These were much more detailed and were given to organizations for in-house use by visiting children.

 

One winter a couple years ago, the group was given a significant number of wooden parts from an individual who was going out of business.  Roger got busy and came up with an original design that would make use of some of the wooden parts.  This was the birth of the Locomotives, which utilized the large "ball" wheels and the locomotive stacks.

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Roger - you truly are the Master Toy Maker!

Roger Bares receives MASTER TOYMAKER Award!



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

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Hisega Meadows Toy Workshop

On Wednesday evening, Nov 14, 2012 around 6 pm, the neighbors in Hisega Meadows gathered at the Toy Shop on Lindsey Drive for chili and homemade rolls.  After the meal, they pulled up their sleeves and got busy putting the final touches on some toys being assembled for the Rapid City Woodworkers Association's Toy Program.  With eight in attendance, approximately 100 basketball games, 35 cup and ball games, 45 paddle games and 15 ring toss games were fitted with wooden balls (or rings) and strings.  We really appreciate their efforts, especially since many of the neighbors are still fully employed, and this was a school night!  These extra efforts by caring friends brought us to the 95% mark on completion of handmade wooden toys to be given to kids in the Black Hills and Sioux Falls areas.  Packing of the toys for the various organization will take place on Dec 1st, with distribution to be completed by the following Saturday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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Nov 12, 2012 RCWA General Meeting

The November 2012 General Meeting of the RCWA was conducted at 7 pm at 910 Wood Ave in Rapid City.  Fourteen members attended to plan the December 10th Family Potluck and to make final preparations for the upcoming distribution of several hundred handmade wooden toys to kids in the Black Hills area.  Several items for Show and Tell were shown and discussed as well.

Here's a summary of the TOY PROGRAM to date:

The members of the Rapid City Woodworkers Association (RCWA) have combined our love for woodworking and our love for kids into a Toy Making Program – we have made and delivered over 4500 handcrafted wooden toys to underprivileged children in South Dakota since we started in 2008.  This is an ongoing program.  We get satisfaction from seeing children enjoying the toys, often their only gift.

The purpose of the Toymaking Program is to enhance the quality of life for underprivileged children of the Black Hills and other parts of South Dakota.  Within our Rapid City Woodworkers Association, we have developed a special year-round Toy Making Program for making and distributing handmade holiday gifts and toys to charitable organizations in the local area.  More than a dozen members work year around in their own garages (and sewing rooms) as well as in monthly Saturday Toy Workshops to produce these quality wooden toys.  Before Christmas, the toys are distributed to various organizations in the area. 

The program is growing:  we made 300 toys our first year in 2008, 1260 in 2009, 1430 in 2010, 1620 toys in 2011.  We had the toys ready in time for Christmas giving and were distributed (at no cost) to various organizations in the area.

We have been working all during 2012 on toys as well.  We held monthly workshops throughout the year and then weekly Saturday morning workshops during the months of October and November.  We are on track to be finished by the first week in December, and gather to distribute the toys the first week of December.

Our workshops during October and November were held at the RCWA Shop in the basement of the Our Redeemer Lutheran Church located at 910 Wood Ave. in Rapid City.  Every Saturday morning from 9 am til noon, you could find six to twelve members working on making parts or final assembly of toys.  During October and November there was also lots of time spent in individual’s shops preparing parts for the assembly time on Saturdays.  We have taken advantage of warm weather this year and are currently approaching a total of 1800 toys built this year.

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Toy Workshops in Oct 2012

We have been meeting every Saturday at the RCWA Shop in the basement of the Our Redeemer Lutheran Church during October.

We will be posting pictures from the activities being conducted as we complete a large number of hand made wooden toys to be given to kids in the Rapid City/Black Hills/South Dakota area.

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