Rapid City Woodworkers Association (RCWA): December 2012

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Screen Captures from YFS Toy Delivery

News Coverage from KEVN TV - Jack Caudill

News Coverage from NEWSCENTER 1 - Emily Szink

The Rapid City Journal

TOYS DELIVERED TO YFS 12-11-2012

Sampling of Toys ready for YFS Children - 12-11-2012

Toy Delivery to YFS - we met at 8:30 am on Tuesday Dec 11, 2012 at the RCWA Shop in the basement of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Rapid City to load up 724 toys and take them to YFS. Dress code was warm clothes with red Santa hats.

Those in attendance included Lon Gose, Rick Weisbeck, Bel Felix, Larry Borg, Grant Coffin, and Bob and Kathie Buchanan.

Click on any photo below to see more:

Further details were documented in a story and video by Emily Szink at NewCenter 1 and can be found on the Newscenter One website:

http://www.newscenter1.tv/stories/12890.aspx

Reporter Brian Sugden at KOTA TV also documented the story and the text can be found at:

http://www.kotatv.com/story/20316416/hundreds-of-toys-make-early-christmas-gifts-for-area-children

Fox News anchor Jack Caudill came to the event as well and provided his story and video at:

http://www.blackhillsfox.com/2012/12/11/Head-Start-kids-get-old-fashioned-Christmas-gift

Aaron Rosenblatt from the Rapid City Journal was on hand to take photos; they can be seen at:

Grant, Rick, Bob, Larry, and Bel pose with YFS Kids.

http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local-woodworkers-give-back-to-youth-and-family-services/article_249543fa-a5ea-55ed-9ad8-37567f6ed462.html

Watch the news tonight - KOTA, KEVN, NewsCenterOne, and the Rapid City Journal were there to record the event!

ANNUAL CHRISTMAS FAMILY POTLUCK DEC 10, 2012

Our December 2012 general meeting was actually the annual FAMILY CHRISTMAS POTLUCK – it was held on Monday December 10th, 2012 at 910 Wood Ave at 6 pm in the fellowship hall at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Rapid City, SD.

Special background music was provided by Woody Phillips who is a woodworker and musician. His CD, THE TOOLBOX CHRISTMAS, recorded in 1996 in his friend Isaiah William's workshop using real woodworking tools, played during dinner. The selections included majestic table saw duets, exquisite marimba-like 2x4s, sensitive counterpoints by a power planer, filigreed ornamentation of clanking pipes, uniquely persuasive percussion of the pneumatic nailer, and the panoply of hand and power tools. Other offerings included antique hand drills, mandoline, anvil, t-square, level and pipes, the musical saw and the drone of the shop vac. We were introduced to a new and extraordinary realm of holiday music covering the full range of the workbench's symphonic palette.

Rick Weisbeck entertained us with a special demonstration of the Gattling Gun with hands-on tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP).

Tables were decorated with Christmas Cookie Jars. A display of samples of all toys the Toymakers made in 2012 was setup for all to see.

There was also a Show and Tell by members of current projects.

The food was super and enjoyed by all. Smoked turkey was the mainstay, and was accompanied by oodles of yummy food of all sorts. The event was attended by 24 members/guests.

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

Saturday, December 1, 2012

TOY PACKING COMPLETED TODAY!

Members of the Rapid City Woodworkers Association completed the packaging of over 1650 handmade wooden toys for kids in the Black Hills and Sioux Falls area on Saturday Dec 1st, 2012. The toys were made by members of the TOY PROGRAM who worked year-round in their own shops as well as the RCWA Shop in the basemetn of the Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Rapid City.

Those arriving at 9 am to start the distribution process included Gary and Denise Kohama, Lon Gose, Bel Felix, Larry Deibert, Harley Schmadeke, Julian Wigen, Grant Coffin, Gary Graves, Larry Borg, Rick Weisbeck, and Bob and Kathie Buchanan.

The first team of pickers (Gary Kohama and Julian Wigen) started down the long row of twenty types of toys. They filled boxes following a pre-selected list for each organization based on age appropriate toys.

The list of 20 handmade wooden toys included several wheeled vehicles (cars, buses, vans, racers, oldies, worms, cruisers), tugboats, airplanes, helicopters, locomotives, jewelry boxes, turtle banks, tractors, as well as games (basketball game, paddle game, ring toss game, cup and ball game), rocking chairs and handmade lined cotton bags filled with wooden critters.

The second team (Larry Deibert and Densie Kohama) and third team (Lon Gose and Bel Felix) are right behind, filling boxes and checking off toys.

Harley Schmadeke and Kathie Buchanan expedited the picking process by makiing sure that an ample supply of toys was always ready for the pickers.

The shipping department fine-tuned their processes of packing, labeling and sealing the boxes to be handcarried to local organizations over the next ten days. The whole process was completed in one and half hours.

Organizations receiving toys over the next ten days in the Black Hills area include Youth and Family Services, The Club for Boys, CASA, WAVI, Benji's House, Airmen Readiness Center at Ellsworth AFB, Black Hills Habitat for Humanity, Passages; and Needs Free of Sioux Falls, SD.

Denise Kohama looks over the load of toys boxed up and loaded in Gary Grave's truck for the trip to Needs Free in Sioux Falls, SD.

Toymaking and story telling go together, as Grant Coffins rests in front of about half of the toys going to Youth and Family Services in the Black Hills. Listening to the story are Rick Weisbeck and Kathie Buchanan.

The first scheduled delivery to the Youth and Family Services facility is planned for Dec 11, 2012.

Many thanks to all the participating toymakers, including Roger Bares, for their fantastic support over the last twelve months. Also many thanks to local business who have supported us throughout the year with resources including Dakota Kraft, Office Max, Basler Printing, Wilkinson Custom Cabinets, Wendy's, Magnum Enterprises, LLC, J&D Woodworking, and numerous local residents.