Emerald Heights’ Wooden Toys for Charity group provides wooden toys for local nonprofits

Published 10:55 am Friday, July 24, 2015

For 20 years, Dale Thompson had a wood shop at his home.

Over the years, he collected his own set of tools and while he and his wife of 50 years were living in San Francisco in the 1990s, he joined a large woodcrafting group and built bookshelves and other items a growing family would need. This was after leaving a 30-year career in engineering at Chevron.

Now, as a resident of the Emerald Heights in Redmond, Thompson no longer has his own woodworking shop, but that has not stopped him from working.

Shortly after he came to live there about a year and a half ago, he discovered the retirement community’s woodworking shop and saw it as an opportunity to keep up his skills.

Thompson invited some of his fellow Emerald Heights residents to join him at the shop and together, they have formed the Wooden Toys for Charity group.

“In this group, residents use saws, sanders and other hand tools to create beautiful and unique toys to benefit local organizations,” he said.

Those organizations include YWCA, Habitat for Humanity’s thrift shop, Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission (SUGM), Ronald McDonald House and Seattle Children’s Hospital.

“The wooden toys were works of art that cater to a child’s imagination,” said Scott Swansen, major gifts officer for Gift In-Kind Operations at SUGM.

He said the Wooden Toys group made beautiful “old school” wooden toys for the children at SUGM’s shelter Hope Place.

“In an age of electronics and gadgetry, it was a blessing to receive these wonderful handmade toys for the children in our shelter,” he said.

Since 2014, Thompson said the Wooden Toys group has made more than 200 items that have been donated to these organizations.

“We expect to more than double that number this year,” he said.

Those items range from wooden cars and trucks, to boats and planes, to various wooden animals — including an articulated dinosaur, which Thompson said is a new addition to their repertoire. The group also creates sets of about 50 rectangular wooden blocks.

“I am a great fan of blocks because they require imagination to see them as spaceships, cows or books,” Thompson said. “And their batteries never go dead.”

With the block sets, he said a crafts group at Emerald Heights has been supporting them by creating cloth drawstring bags for each set.

In addition to the toys, the Wooden Toys group also has made handheld mirrors and keepsake boxes.

Thompson came by woodworking through his father. He said growing up, their house was full of tools and his father had the skills and a yearning to learn, which was passed down to Thompson as he quickly began to learn the craft of woodworking.

“If my dad had the time and knowledge to make or fix something himself, he would do it,” he said. “So I learned as a kid that if you want something painted you go out, get some paint and paint it yourself.”

Thompson began making wooden toys in the early 1990s. After 20 years of working and creating with his hands, he sees the Wooden Toys group as a mutually beneficial opportunity for all of those involved.

“When you retire, a lot of people miss the rush and thrill of working every day, and being a part of this group is a win-win situation,” Thompson said. “The children receive something that they can enjoy, play with and share, and we feel reward for giving them that and sharing our craft with the community.”