Changing the world
Costco members finding ways to help others
Retirement with a purpose
Santa’s official address may be the North
Pole, but it’s safe to say that a group of toymakers has taken up residence at the
Emerald Heights retirement community in
Redmond, Washington. Fifteen retirees
there work year-round to create upward
of 700 handmade wooden toys for local
children in need.
When the Connection caught up with
the group of woodworkers, the toys were
on display before being divvied up among
several local nonprofit organizations. The
toys included trucks, boats, articulated
dinosaurs, ride-on toys, two-story dollhouses, doll beds with hand-knit dolls
and more.
Costco member and toymaker Bill
Dumar wrote in his artist statement that
he makes toys for charity because “making
classic wooden toys that can’t be bought,
don’t need batteries and [contain] no
plastic gives me a good feeling inside.”
Emerald Heights boasts two wood
Above: “Retired”
toymakers at Emerald
Heights retirement
community. Clockwise
from rear left: Jim
Lohr, Joe Sommer, Bill
Furrer, Hal Gilmour,
Ken Tschritter, Mac
Trunkey, Dale Thompson, Heidi Smith, Bill
Dumar, Ernie Ruf, Jim
Hawn and David West.
shops, and while much of the wood
the toymakers use is donated by local
business Canyon Creek Cabinet Company,
anything else they need is paid for out
of their own pockets.
When talking about this program,
which is entering its sixth year, Costco
member Jim Hawn calls it “retirement
with a purpose.”
Lead toymaker Dale Thompson,
who brought the idea to Emerald Heights,
adds that in retirement there are “only
so many books you can read and naps
you can take.”—Stephanie E. Ponder
Meaningful meals
At a time when people seem to be
growing more disconnected from their
communities and neighbors, an inspiring
trend is gaining momentum: meal trains.
Meal trains are a series of homemade meals,
delivered neighbor to neighbor, following
births, deaths or illnesses.
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