jmdrake
12-06-2009, 10:38 PM
No joke. Handmade toy makers may go under in the name of protecting children from lead paint. Never mind that all of the lead paint toys came from big conglomerates importing toys from China.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/dec/05/volunteers-take-some-pressure-north-pole/
Volunteers take toy pressure off North Pole
By Triveni Sheshadri
Saturday, December 5, 2009 at midnight
Woodworking student Dan Hecko tested a miniature car carrier made by a volunteer at Palomar College, where a toy charity began 11 years ago.
Charlie Neuman / Union-Tribune
Woodworking student Dan Hecko tested a miniature car carrier made by a volunteer at Palomar College, where a toy charity began 11 years ago.
Woodworking student Dan Hecko tested a miniature car carrier made by a volunteer at Palomar College, where a toy charity began 11 years ago.
Charlie Neuman / Union-Tribune
Hay tractors (right) were ready to go. The toys are given to agencies that help needy children.
Woodworking student Dan Hecko tested a miniature car carrier made by a volunteer at Palomar College, where a toy charity began 11 years ago.
Charlie Neuman / Union-Tribune
Ervin Walker and Barbara Clark assembled a wooden bed cradle at the Palomar College woodshop, where more than 50 volunteers gathered on a recent Saturday for the toy-making project.
SAN MARCOS — For Joe Amora, one of the greatest pleasures of the holiday season is watching the beaming faces of his grandchildren as they unwrap his handmade wooden toys. But the high school teacher’s generosity does not stop at home.
Amora and other volunteers meet four times before Thanksgiving to make more than 400 exquisite wooden toys at Palomar College. The toys are given to pediatric wards, preschools, churches, homeless shelters and other agencies that help children throughout the county.
On a recent Saturday morning, more than 50 men and women gathered at Palomar’s cavernous wood shops to finish ducks, high-speed tops, hay wagons, puzzles and grasshoppers. They put smiley faces on tugboats, tied pink and orange strings to helicopters and made sure each toy functioned.
“You don’t want to give a toy that doesn’t work,” said Terry Clark, a retired teacher.
In an age of mass-produced Tickle Me Elmos and Zhu Zhu Pets, the Palomar workshop recalls toy-making of another era. Crafted from mahogany, cherry and other hardwoods, each toy is sanded, shellacked and painted by hand. College students work alongside engineers and attorneys. Retired IRS agents team up with teachers and artists.
Karen Geuy is a watercolor painter and woodworker from Fallbrook. The toy-making is her way of contributing to the community and to the campus, where she has taken woodworking classes for 17 years.
“We have a great time,” Geuy said as she carefully applied shellac to a tugboat. “It’s a cooperative effort, a lot of people working together. It makes me very happy to be doing something for children in need.”
The Palomar College toy project began 11 years ago in partnership with the San Diego Fine Woodworkers Association. Volunteers sign up for a one-unit cabinet and furniture technology class. Enrollment that has hovered around 40 in the past jumped to 55 this year, said Gordon Collinson, a Palomar instructor who supervises the program.
“We had to make more toys to keep everyone busy,” Collinson said.
Members of the woodworkers association play a key role. They choose and fine-tune toy designs, procure wood donations from businesses, buy parts and assemble kits for each toy. They distribute the toys made at Palomar, along with thousands of others they make in their own wood shops, to social-service groups.
Charlie Bierman, a retired rocket designer, is one of the people who do the bulk of the preparation before volunteers begin their work. His engineering background is evident in the precision of his drawings, instruction sheets and parts lists that he keeps in a thick blue binder.
“There is no one single reason I do this,” he said. “First, toy-making is a team effort. There is a lot of camaraderie. Second, it’s an outlet to use my design skills. And it’s a good cause.”
The holiday tradition that the volunteers have come to cherish is facing an uncertain future because of a federal law that Congress passed in 2008. The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, designed to protect children from lead and other chemicals, mandates safety tests for products meant for children younger than 12. Small programs, such as the Palomar workshop, that use nontoxic materials in their toys are not exempt.
The testing requirement means an expense of thousands of dollars for the toy program, said Robert Threm, president of the woodworkers association.
“We are a nonprofit, and we are barely making it,” Threm said. “The law is very broad. It doesn’t make any exceptions. It’s a huge issue that could potentially endanger the program, and it’s not just us.”
For now, Threm is following the efforts of the Handmade Toy Alliance, a coalition of small toy makers and store owners, to persuade Congress to amend the law.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/dec/05/volunteers-take-some-pressure-north-pole/
Volunteers take toy pressure off North Pole
By Triveni Sheshadri
Saturday, December 5, 2009 at midnight
Woodworking student Dan Hecko tested a miniature car carrier made by a volunteer at Palomar College, where a toy charity began 11 years ago.
Charlie Neuman / Union-Tribune
Woodworking student Dan Hecko tested a miniature car carrier made by a volunteer at Palomar College, where a toy charity began 11 years ago.
Woodworking student Dan Hecko tested a miniature car carrier made by a volunteer at Palomar College, where a toy charity began 11 years ago.
Charlie Neuman / Union-Tribune
Hay tractors (right) were ready to go. The toys are given to agencies that help needy children.
Woodworking student Dan Hecko tested a miniature car carrier made by a volunteer at Palomar College, where a toy charity began 11 years ago.
Charlie Neuman / Union-Tribune
Ervin Walker and Barbara Clark assembled a wooden bed cradle at the Palomar College woodshop, where more than 50 volunteers gathered on a recent Saturday for the toy-making project.
SAN MARCOS — For Joe Amora, one of the greatest pleasures of the holiday season is watching the beaming faces of his grandchildren as they unwrap his handmade wooden toys. But the high school teacher’s generosity does not stop at home.
Amora and other volunteers meet four times before Thanksgiving to make more than 400 exquisite wooden toys at Palomar College. The toys are given to pediatric wards, preschools, churches, homeless shelters and other agencies that help children throughout the county.
On a recent Saturday morning, more than 50 men and women gathered at Palomar’s cavernous wood shops to finish ducks, high-speed tops, hay wagons, puzzles and grasshoppers. They put smiley faces on tugboats, tied pink and orange strings to helicopters and made sure each toy functioned.
“You don’t want to give a toy that doesn’t work,” said Terry Clark, a retired teacher.
In an age of mass-produced Tickle Me Elmos and Zhu Zhu Pets, the Palomar workshop recalls toy-making of another era. Crafted from mahogany, cherry and other hardwoods, each toy is sanded, shellacked and painted by hand. College students work alongside engineers and attorneys. Retired IRS agents team up with teachers and artists.
Karen Geuy is a watercolor painter and woodworker from Fallbrook. The toy-making is her way of contributing to the community and to the campus, where she has taken woodworking classes for 17 years.
“We have a great time,” Geuy said as she carefully applied shellac to a tugboat. “It’s a cooperative effort, a lot of people working together. It makes me very happy to be doing something for children in need.”
The Palomar College toy project began 11 years ago in partnership with the San Diego Fine Woodworkers Association. Volunteers sign up for a one-unit cabinet and furniture technology class. Enrollment that has hovered around 40 in the past jumped to 55 this year, said Gordon Collinson, a Palomar instructor who supervises the program.
“We had to make more toys to keep everyone busy,” Collinson said.
Members of the woodworkers association play a key role. They choose and fine-tune toy designs, procure wood donations from businesses, buy parts and assemble kits for each toy. They distribute the toys made at Palomar, along with thousands of others they make in their own wood shops, to social-service groups.
Charlie Bierman, a retired rocket designer, is one of the people who do the bulk of the preparation before volunteers begin their work. His engineering background is evident in the precision of his drawings, instruction sheets and parts lists that he keeps in a thick blue binder.
“There is no one single reason I do this,” he said. “First, toy-making is a team effort. There is a lot of camaraderie. Second, it’s an outlet to use my design skills. And it’s a good cause.”
The holiday tradition that the volunteers have come to cherish is facing an uncertain future because of a federal law that Congress passed in 2008. The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, designed to protect children from lead and other chemicals, mandates safety tests for products meant for children younger than 12. Small programs, such as the Palomar workshop, that use nontoxic materials in their toys are not exempt.
The testing requirement means an expense of thousands of dollars for the toy program, said Robert Threm, president of the woodworkers association.
“We are a nonprofit, and we are barely making it,” Threm said. “The law is very broad. It doesn’t make any exceptions. It’s a huge issue that could potentially endanger the program, and it’s not just us.”
For now, Threm is following the efforts of the Handmade Toy Alliance, a coalition of small toy makers and store owners, to persuade Congress to amend the law.