Inland Woodworkers Deliver Again
The Inland Woodworkers Association held their annual toy distribution event on Saturday, November 12, 2022. The event was held at the Jurupa Valley Children and Family Services center. Woodworkers and recipients gathered together to share toys and stories. By midday, 760 toys were transitioned to our community partners for holiday 2022 distribution. Another 2000 will be hand delivered to the charitable organizations in the coming weeks.
It begins with the setup
The day started at 9am with volunteers assembling tables and displaying the goods.
And as more crafters appeared, so did the toys!
And then the magic happens!
At 10am, our partners began selecting their toys.
So what does it take?
Today’s event would not have been possible without the dedication and efforts of the many woodworkers who contributed to this event.
At 10am, our partners began selecting their toys.
Mike Trejo
Mike is the IWA Special Events coordinator. He has been responsible for the Toy Distribution event for the past 3 years. During that time, he oversaw the distribution of more than 3000 toys each year. His tireless enthusiasm includes the coordination of community partners, making arrangements for toy pickups, and assisting and motivating his fellow woodworkers.
Mike has been an avid woodworker for the past 4 years and has been making toys for past 3 years. This year, he contributed 265 toys, using poplar, Baltic birch plywood, pine, and maple. Mike’s tools of choice include the CNC laser, table saw, scroll saw, band saw, and sanders.
Mike has a military background, where he was involved in working with orphanages. He likes the idea of helping kids in the community, and this event extends his ongoing charitable philosophy.
Kenneth Thomas
Kenneth is the 2022 IWA President. He has more than 40 years as a woodworker and has been making toys for the past 5 years. This year, he made race cars, firetrucks, police cars, and helicopters; a total of 284 toys.
Ken works primarily with CNC machines (routers, lasers, etc.) He is the instructor for the CNC club (make sure to attend a meeting, they are packed with knowledge!). He makes toys in batches of 50, but even with the automation, it still takes about 30 minutes to finish each toy. Fortunately, he was assisted this year by the UC-Riverside Beta Phi Delta fraternity.
Ken loves woodworking and enjoys giving back to the community. He is looking forward to more people joining this effort next year. Ken was instrumental in arranging for lumber donations for this year’s event.
Ray Gonzales
Ray is currently serving as the President of the Scroll Saw Club. This year, he made 100 toys. The poplar and pine toys were handmade using the scroll saw, router, drill press, and a lot of determination. The average time to complete a toy was 15 minutes. His materials were donated by the club.
This was Ray’s 3rd year participating in the toy drive. His motivation comes from the enjoyment of woodworking, coupled with the satisfaction of giving back to the community. He also enjoys the social aspect.
Ray has been an avid woodworker for the past 5 years.
Leon Pallis
Leon is a member of the Scroll Saw club. This year, he made 78 toys, including tug boats, race cars, and the ever-popular Model T cars. His toys were made from pine pulled from his own wood bin. Leon’s tools of choice include the scroll saw, band saw, and router. And paint supplies, as each of his toys is hand painted!
The average time to make a race car is 30 minutes; the Model T takes significantly longer. A tug boat takes about 2 hours.
Leon has been making toys since 2007. He recognizes that some families might not have the economic means to purchase toys for the holidays, and that kids don’t understand this. This is his way of giving back to the community.
Ernie Gonzalez
Ernie specializes in making custom designed toys. This year, he made 100 of them. He used poplar from the IWA club, along with maple and pine. All of his toys were hand painted. The unique designs and vibrant colors made Ernie’s toys a top choice.
Ernie was resourceful in obtaining pine donations from local roofers and converting their trestle remnants into children’s toys.
His primary tools include the table saw and the scroll saw.
Ernie makes toys in batches of 10. Each batch takes anywhere from 3 to 4 hours.
Rick Reimer
This year Rick made 70 toys using poplar from the IWA club. His designs include tractors, trucks, and cars. The average time to complete a car is 30-45 minutes, whereas the tractors can take over an hour to complete.
This is Rick’s third year of contributing to the toy distribution drive. He has been a woodworker for the past 20 years. His motivation comes from his love of woodworking coupled with the charitable aspect of making things to give away.
A special thanks to the following woodworkers who contributed to the event, but were unable to attend the distribution
Mike Sullivan
Mike has been a staunch supporter of the Toys Distribution events. He builds and donates thousands of toys each year. This year, Mike has 2000 toys ready to go. Unfortunately, an illness prevented him from attending the distribution event, but Mike has made a speedy recovery, and we’re glad to see him back to good health.
Phyllis Minert
Phyllis is the treasurer of the scroll saw club. This year, Phyllis contributed of 105 toy cars. Her excellent craftsmanship led to Phyllis’s toy being the first selected!
Bill Penicks
This year, Bill made 15 push toys. His toys were a huge crowd pleaser last year, and will undoubtedly receive the same responses again this year. Bill is also an avid lathe turning. He turned several custom pens this year that
were donated to our military personnel. Bill, we wish you the best in your relocation to the east coast.
Our Partners
The toy distribution event would not be possible without our charity partners. The following individuals made today’s event extra special:
Alejandra Lopez
Alejandra is a Behavioral Health Peer Specialist for the Parent Involvement and Community Outreach (PICO) program. PICO provides services for children as well as parents, including case management, offering assistance with job placement, housing, food, and clothing throughout all of Riverside County.
Alejandra is assigned to the Jurupa Unified School District, with a primary focus on the kids at Mission Middle School. She volunteered for the toy drive event and spent the day assisting with the logistics. Thanks again for being a great host!
Alejandra has been working with kids for the past 10 years. She has a background in criminal justice, and during that time, she supported after school programs, helping kids so that they don’t end up in the detention center.
Beulah White
Beulah is a Local District Safety Officer for the Fontana School Police, which includes 60 security officers responsible for the 50 schools in the district. She runs the Fontana Santas organization. They pick 10 students from each of the 50 schools sites, and then service all of the children in each of the selected students’ family.
Her efforts include collecting the toys and coordinating a drive-through where parents can pick up their packages. Each gift package is bundled with 3 to 4 toys per child.
The Santas organization was founded by Cindy Evaro. While working as an officer, Cindy responded to an incident where a child ran away from home because there were no presents for Christmas. Cindy passed away 6 years ago. Beulah volunteered for this assignment so that she could continue the program in Cindy’s legacy.
Joe Huff
Joe is a Safety Officer for the Fontana Unified School District. He has been on the force for 16 years. Joe’s motivation for supporting this event comes from seeing the exhilaration on the kids’ faces as they receive their new toys. He notes that seeing their joy is priceless.
Joe recognizes that the kids don’t really understand the efforts involved in making these toys, but he sees the uniqueness of each handmade toy, and that inspires him to support the toy distribution event. When asked which toys were most popular last year, Joe informed us that boys liked the tanks, helicopters, and cars, and girls liked the ducks and rabbits.
Last year, Joe masked up and participated in the toy drive. He made every effort to overcome any possibility of disappointing the children if no toys were available. We applaud his dedication to the kids and thank him for his ongoing support.
Corey Romo
Corey has been the Program Director for the Redlands Family Service Association since August 2022. The association is a safety net program that coordinates clothing, food and housing for more than 100 families per month. They have a staff of 15 people and an outreach office in Yucaipa. More info can be found at Redlandsfamilyservice.org
Corey works with low income families. His organization makes gift baskets and decorates a holiday room where families can pick out gifts.
Additional Recognition
The IWA would like to recognize and thank the UC-Riverside Beta Phi Delta fraternity for their help in sanding and assembling toys this year. This year, they completed 60 toys. We’re putting out a challenge for 100 toys next year!
IWA would also like to extend our gratitude to Ganahl Lumber of Anaheim. Ganahl Lumber has been an ongoing supporter of this toy drive. Please visit them at www.ganahllumber.com or at 1220 E. Ball Road in Anaheim.
