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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October 2012 GENERAL MEETING

The meeting of the RCWA for October 2012 is planned for Oct 8, 2012 at 7 pm at 910 Wood Ave in Rapid City, SD.

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Toy Workshop Oct 6, 2012

We continued our marathon of Toy Workshops this weekend with another gathering at the RCWA Workshop in the basement of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church at 910 Wood Ave in Rapid City at 9 am on Saturday Oct 6, 2012.

This Saturday, eight individuals braved the first snowfall of the year and came out to make toys.   Tasks included drilling helicopter axle holes, sanding airplanes, assembling wheeled vehicles, taking inventory of items that have been completed and readied for the storeroom, gluing up helicopter rotors, assembling helicopters, assembling turtle banks, and receiving completed items.  A team of three assembled wheeled vehicles.  Once again, members took boxes of toys home to work on in their shops.

Attendeess included Lon, Larry, Bel, Kathie, Harley, Frank, Rick, Gary Graves, and Bob.

A total of 303 toys were inventoried and placed in the storeroom including small cars, racers, oldies, buses, turtle banks, helicopters, and airplanes. 

The next workshop is planned for October 13, 2012.

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Toy Workshop Sept 29, 2012

Beginning this Saturday and continuing every weekend until Dec 1, 2012, we will hold a Toy Workshop at the RCWA Workshop in the basement of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church at 910 Wood Ave in Rapid City.

This Saturday, eleven individuals arrived to tackle the tasks at hand.  Tasks included driling axle holes, drilling windows, drilling eyes on critters, sanding cars and critters, taking inventory of items that have been completed and readied for the storeroom.  A team of six assembled wheeled vehicles. Holes for helicopter rotors were drilled, and tugboat completion plans put in place.  Many members took boxes of toys home to work on in their shops including routering edges, cutting vehicles from stock, sealing and finishing with lacquer.  Other items which had been completed at home in the previous weeks were exchanged including plexiglass circles blanks for turtle banks, tugboat cutouts, tugboat cabin parts, airplane fuselages, finished wheels and painted axles, and critter cutouts.

Attendeess included Lon, Julian, Larry, Bel, Ron, Kathie, Harley, Frank, Rick, Steve, Darwin and Bob.

A total of 404 toys were inventoried and placed in the storeroom;  these included small cars, racers, sedans, oldies, buses, locomotives, and jewelry boxes.

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RCWA General Meeting - September 10, 2012

The September 2012 general meeting was held on September 10th, 2012 at 910 Wood Ave at 7 pm. Minutes of the meeting follow:

The lack of a formal meeting space or structure to have it in made for an interesting get-together of the wood workers of Rapid City.

At 6:45 pm, the secretary drove up and parked in front of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church to find several other members under the awning in front of the building.  As I approached the group, Vice President Weisbeck was explaining that the furniture inside the building was gone and that the carpet was all wet.  They had just cleaned all of the carpets in the building.  Later others came and the meeting place problem was passed on as they arrived.

The building was locked up again and there were discussions of agenda items under the awning, while it started to sprinkle.  So some left, few decisions were made, and a few members visited for about an hour and 30 minutes.   [The main topic for this meeting was planning for the "end of summer" family picnic and preparing for the effort to complete toys for the upcoming Christmas season.]  

In short, the meeting didn't start and was finished quickly.

Harley Schmadeke, Secretary

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