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The Toy Boys

You don’t have to be big to be successful.

One of our smallest Rotary clubs in District 9510, the Rotary Club of Charles Sturt Grange, has a long running program where club members and volunteers, 16 in all, meet weekly to make high quality wooden toys.

They achieve a massive total of 600 toys built and painted each year.

PICTURED: The Toy Boys: President of the Rotary Club of Charles Sturt Grange Peter Read, left, volunteer Tony Curtis, volunteer Graham Modra and Toy Factory Team Leader John Cook present a van load of handmade toys to staff from Anglicare SA.

On the last Wednesday in November, the group meets to distribute the toys to nine charities in their area. The club has been awarded the best Community Event of the Year by the Charles Sturt Council as part of its Australia Day Awards.

How does a club of nine members (four of them Toy Boys) manage to achieve so much?

Volunteering at Bunnings barbecues and the carousel at Semaphore as well as donations covers most of the material costs, but they also have work experience students from Findon High School to provide extra labour. The club has now expanded its program to cover two special schools where disabled students assist with toy repairs.