Toys 4 Smiles Field Trip

This month's meeting took us on a field trip to Toys 4 Smiles, a non-profit group here in town devoted to ensuring that every child has a toy in hand, especially during difficult time, such as hospital visits.

Rex explaining the program -- check out the cars and goodies on the table.

Toys4Smiles is a wonderful organization that exists because of the heart Rex Doty has for bringing smiles on children's faces that are having a difficult time or going through some type of personal trauma.  The passion Rex has for this is evident when you hear him explain and trace the history of the organization.

The wall where children who have toured and helped in the shop sign their thoughts and appreciation.

He is able to attract volunteers to help in the shop from every walk of life.  These include everyone from school age groups, scout organizations, and college age students to adults and retired folks just looking for a place to spend time doing something they believe in.

One of many work stations, this is where window and axle holes are drilled

Rex has worked tirelessly in the community to get donations for the charity.  These range from hundreds of board feet of donated lumber to shopping carts needed to move the toys from one station to the next.

Part of the tour

Ingenious branding stamp station

During the tour of the shop, Rex showed us several things that volunteers have made to help streamline the process.  It included this branding station where each toy is branded with the logo of Toys4Smiles.  It insures that children and the community know where the toy came from.

A rocking horse made by a volunteer

To sum the evening up, it was obvious that Rex has put all of his heart and soul into this project.  He explained the hours the shop is open and the need for volunteers.  An unusual aspect for our Sin City Woodworkers meeting is that we had refreshments (thanks for the Oreos!) and Rex pointed out that he requires all volunteers to take a break at the same time at least twice a day.  This is his way of making sure that the people working have a sense of community as they work away creating a portion of joy in the life of a child that needs it.

Wednesday, April 20th. Meeting

The meeting this month will be held at Toys 4 Smiles instead of Jamie's shop. Toys 4 Smiles is located at 3170 Polaris and they are in units 17 & 18. You may want to mapquest it from your house although it's easy enough to find.




To get there you turn west onto Sirius which is located between Sahara and Desert Inn. Once you're headed west the second right is Polaris. I've looked at it on Google Maps and there seems to be many rows of industrial type buildings.

Rex Doty's place is in units 17 & 18. When I spoke with him he said he had plenty of seating so you won't need to bring your chairs to this meeting. Hope to see you there, the starting time will be the same -- 7:00 pm.

*** AWFS-- IT'S HERE ***

If you haven't checked lately I'll pass on the Education Schedule to you.  Here is a LINK  so if you click on it you will go directly to the page that has a downloadable, PDF link on it.