Redmond’s 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.

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 spaceships, 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.”