The smell of wood and sounds of saws filled the workshop on the second floor of Mountain View Welding. Inside, a group of retirees in Santa hats were making Christmas magic.
Marv Van Peursem, who wore a red cowboy hat with fur trim on Tuesday at the workshop, is the project coordinator for the Longmont Kiwanis Club’s “Toys for Kids” service project. Using donated lumber — usually recycled scrap — volunteers hand crafted over 11,000 wood toys this year.
“Since beginning 12 years ago, our project has grown,” said Van Peursem, who helped start the program.
Roughly 1,000 of the toys are sold to finance the purchase of 55,000 wheels, something their workshop isn’t set up to create, but most of the toys are donated to family and child welfare organizations serving kids in need, both locally and overseas. Donations go to places like the Ronald McDonald House, OUR Center, El Pas Movement, Salvation Army, Children’s Hospital, Inn Between and much more.
“Our Christmas campaign each year from mid-October to mid-December highlights our year's work,” Van Peursem said. “We reach out to nonprofits and receive their requests for the number of donated toys needed for helping children they serve to celebrate Christmas.”
The workshop makes 25-50 toys at once in a factory-like setup, with someone tracing the shapes, another person cutting them out, followed by sanding and assembling the toys. About six to 10 volunteers work on the project every Thursday, plus Tuesdays during the holiday season.
Trains, cars and bulldozers are just some of the wooden toys hand crafted by the club. Van Peursem pointed out two t-rexes on display as well.
“They’re put together by a retired surgeon. He said it was a lot different than a gallbladder,” he joked.
While Christmas is their busiest time of year, the Kiwanis Club makes and donates toys all year long. With the holiday rush coming to an end, they spent this week rebuilding their inventory, especially of the more elaborate toys.
Van Peursem added that the donated workshop space on the second floor of Mountain View Welding is what makes this large scale effort possible.
