Emerald Heights Residents Handcraft More Than 800 Toys for Local Charities
December 1, 2017
REDMOND, Wash. (Dec. 4, 2017) – Emerald Heights, a Life Plan Community with amenity-rich offerings and on-site health care services, recently donated more than 800 handmade wooden toys to charities in Seattle, Wash.
The Wooden Toys for Charity, a group of 12 Emerald Heights residents created in 2014, use saws, sanders, and other hand tools to create wooden cars, blocks, airplanes, tug boats, dinosaurs, baby doll cribs and other toys. Additionally, a crafts group at Emerald Heights has been supporting the toymakers by creating cloth drawstring bags for each set of wooden blocks.
Dale Thompson, a resident at Emerald Heights leads the Wooden Toys for Charity group, along with Mary Miele of Canyon Creek Cabinet Company. Canyon Creek Cabinet Company generously donates five pallets of wood to make these toys each year.
“We enjoy seeing our wood cut-offs repurposed into toys for children, and look forward to donating additional wood materials to ‘Wooden Toys for Charity’ in the future,” says John Earl, environmental manager at Canyon Creek.
In the age of electronics, the group enjoys giving the children handmade toys that allow their imagination to flourish. Powered only by imagination, children can actively enhance their cognitive development with wooden toys as opposed to electronic.
“I am a great fan of wooden blocks because they require imagination to see them as sp aceships, cows or books,” Thompson said. “What’s even better is their batteries never go dead.” The Wooden Toys for Charity group also love being able to handcraft toys that are free of toxic chemicals, eco-friendly and durable.
With the help of each volunteer, this annual program produces increasing results year after year. More than 624 toys were created in 2016 and significantly surpassed that number this year. Together, the Wooden Toys for Charity group made more than 800 toys for children and charity organizations in the area, including:
- Childhaven
- Seattle Children’s Hospital
- Ronald McDonald House
- Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission
- Mary’s Place
Since the group began three years ago, the Wooden Toys for Charity group of Emerald Heights have donated more than 1,500 toys to children through various charities. When asked about why the group decides to do this each year, Thompson said, “The children receive something that they can enjoy, play with and share. We want to donate toys to charities that put these toys into the hands of children who may not get any toys this year. It is rewarding to be able to give them a present.”
To learn more about Emerald Heights, visit www.emeraldheights.com or call 866-844-1345. Also, learn about health tips and features on the Redmond community on the Emerald Heights Facebook page, Facebook.com/EmeraldHeightsRedmond.
About Emerald Heights
Emerald Heights, sponsored by Emerald Communities, is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) senior housing and service organization that provides its residents programs to cultivate culture, vitality and independence. The community is a Type A Life Plan Community that accommodates residents’ changing needs throughout the aging process. Situated on 38 acres in the Education Hill area of Redmond, Wash. just
17 miles northeast of Seattle, Emerald Heights is an amenity-rich and resort-style senior living community, plus an assisted living facility and Medicare-certified skilled nursing health center. The campus opened in 1992 to provide housing and service to people ages 55 and older in the aspects of independent, assisted living and skilled nursing. For more information about Emerald Heights, please visit www.emeraldheights.com or call 888-844-1345.
