Seniors make, donate handmade toys

Seniors build the toys; Salvation Army distributes

The warmth of spring and even the heat of July inspired the spirit of Christmas giving for Margaret Wineinger and her friends at Springmoor retirement community.

Wineinger, 84, and more than 20 other residents of the North Raleigh center started making old-fashioned toys in April for distribution to parents last week by the Salvation Army of Wake County.

Making more than 350 hand-sanded, brightly painted wooden cars involves multiple gatherings by a toy brigade each year, but the group produces plenty of quiet satisfaction.

"I like to do crafts, and I thought it was a very worthwhile cause," said Wineinger.

The handcrafted toys proved popular with parents invited to the Salvation Army Community Center to pick up two each from among all the donated toys for more than 4,500 children. All the toys made by the Springmoor group were taken the first day.

"We definitely don't have any other toys that are handmade like the ones that Springmoor donates every year," said Robyn van den Berg, volunteer and resource coordinator for the Salvation Army of Wake County.

The cars started as pieces of donated pine, were cut out in a shop at Springmoor, then received sanding and three coats of paint. Volunteers added wheels and decorations. They did detailing, any needed repair and a final touch-up.

"Some of them will have to be painted again," said Jerry Fuller, chairman of the Toys for Kids project, at a July work session at Springmoor.

"Beverly is the one in charge of headlights and taillights," Fuller said of his wife.

During the past four years, Springmoor residents have given 1,251 toys to the Salvation Army and sold 475 in the center's gift shop at $5 apiece to pay costs of the project.

Because of the way the toys are distributed, the Springmoor volunteers don't get to meet the children who will enjoy the durable, cheerful products of the months of work. But that didn't trouble honorary elf Pauline Noble, 88.

"It's good to think that you're going to help a little child that wouldn't get a toy otherwise," Noble said.