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May 9, 2008

Woodworkers Donate Toys to Learning Center

By Leslie Perales Observer Staff Writer

For more than 15 years, the Reston Community Center Good Neighbors Senior Woodworking group has been designing and creating for children throughout the Reston area. On Tuesday, the group delivered toys to children at the Laurel Learning Center. The delivery included wooden cars, animals, puzzles, a dollhouse, hand puppets with a wooden stage, telephones, tractors and pull toys.

"Just to see the looks on their faces and on the kids' faces really makes me happy," said Fran Crawley, program director at Laurel Learning Center. The toys are very nice and the children really enjoy them, she said. Robert Arguinzoni, adult program director for RCC, agreed. "It's great to see the kids enjoying the toys, he said. "It's great to see the smiles on their faces."

Oscar Wells, instructor and woodshop supervisor for the group, said he is often amazed at the ideas the seniors bring to him. He said many of their designs are based on pictures of toys from catalogs, especially old Sears catalogs. Once they find a toy they want to make, Wells helps the volunteers design and create them. "I try to help convert their ideas into reality," he said. "It's a really great group of people. They come up with fantastic ideas."

Wells has been doing woodworking for about 45 years and has been working as the group's instructor at RCC for about three years. In addition to helping design the toys, Wells teaches volunteers how to use power tools, such as table saws.

"At times it's a real challenge figuring out how you're going to build things," he said.

Volunteers make the toys out of donated or found wood, and they are usually painted in bright primary colors, Wells said. When nicer hardwoods are donated, they like to lacquer the wood to show off the quality of the wood and give the toys a vintage feel.

After the toys were delivered to the Laurel Learning Center on Tuesday, groups of children filed through the playroom to select toys to bring back to their classrooms and take home with them. Dele Daucher and Richard Mitchell, volunteers who helped deliver the toys, pointed out ones they had designed, constructed or painted as they watched the children play with them. They chuckled as one little girl pulled a colorful snail on wheels that was half her size and doubled as a puzzle.

Walt Lazear, another volunteer, said being able to provide children with the toys is terrific. He also said he enjoys helping to deliver the toys and likes to take photos on drop-off days to create collages later.