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Local News » Senior Artisans Craft Toys, Create Smiles for Needy Children

Senior Artisans Craft Toys, Create Smiles for Needy Children

Harry Jones, right, and Will Haas are among the Valle Verde amateur artisans who each year handcraft scores of toys for Unity Shoppe. (Lara Cooper / Noozhawk photo)

By Lara Cooper, Noozhawk Staff Writer | Published on 11.14.2009

Santa’s workshop has nothing on Valle Verde residents in terms of productivity.

Members of the Santa Barbara retirement community have been working all year to create hundreds of handmade toys and clothing items for children, which they donated to Unity Shoppe last week.

Handknit clothes are also among the items Valle Verde residents create each year for needy children. (Lara Cooper / Noozhawk photo)

On a recent day, Harry Jones was arranging an army of wooden toys on several tables. A fleet of wooden trucks, wagons, step stools and pull toys were lined up for the Unity Shoppe workers who would stop by later to pick them up. Jones worked with a group of 10 others who met once a week over the course of the last year, and ended up creating 160 wooden toys.

“It’s quite a spread,” he said.

Jones, who has been involved with making the toys for 12 years, has a background in mass production of furniture. When he arrived at Valle Verde, 900 Calle De Los Amigos, groups were already making wooden toys, but were making them one at a time. “They weren’t making very many,” he recalled.

Now, by developing a set of jigs and fixtures to create the toys, “nothing has to be measured,” he explained.

Just across the hall from the woodworks, a room packed with fabric handicrafts also waited to be retrieved. Tables were packed with handmade sweaters, hats, doll clothes and blankets.

Unity Shoppe executive director Tom Reed said the donated toys and clothes are a welcome addition to store’s holiday offerings.

“It’s just amazing,” he said, adding that Valle Verde has contributed handmade toys for nearly two decades.

“Hundreds of those go out and the little kids are thrilled,” said Reed, adding that the handmade toys are really special in an age when most toys are plastic.

A fleet of yellow wooden trucks awaits the holidays. (Lara Cooper / Noozhawk photo)

Most of the clients who visit Unity Shoppe are struggling, and Reed said many are “newly needy” because of some impact from the economic downturn.

“When they get something at Unity from Valle Verde that’s handmade and beautiful and different than what you get normally, it’s really special,” he said.

There are 300 agencies that refer more than 20,000 people to Unity Shoppe, 1219 State St. Parents can stroll the store with a cart and pick out clothing and toys for their children.

Also contributing to the collection of handmade toys Valle Verde donates is the adult woodworking class from SBCC’s Wake Center.

Reed said the handmade toys and clothes will go out after Thanksgiving. He added that Unity Shoppe needs donated turkeys for its Thanksgiving drive and chickens for the Christmas season.

Funding to buy food is the greatest need, however, since Unity Shoppe can leverage the money to purchase large amounts wholesale. Click here to donate to Unity Shoppe.

— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

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