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.
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.
Related news
Teaching children essential social and emotional skills to foster learning and encourage positive behaviour
Implementing school-based intervention programs to address issues related to PTSD and behavioural challenges in primary school children. Dr Govind Krishnamoorthy, a clinical psychologist and senior lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland was granted a Mental Health Research Grant by Australian Rotary Health in 2023. His research has focussed on further developing Trauma-Informed Behaviour Support […]
An exchange of community, culture and country
An Indigenous Group Study Exchange from South Dakota, US, to south-western NSW has highlighted the shared experiences of both country’s First Nations Peoples. A group of Native Americans from the Sioux Nation spent time travelling through south-western NSW on a Group Study Exchange from October 15 to November 2. Kibbe Brown, of the Rotary Club […]
Tackling a Rotary Camino one step at a time
Rotary International Director Elect Jennifer Scott AM outlines a new path forward for Rotary South Pacific in 2024-25. During September and October, I spent seven weeks walking the Chemin Le Puy, an 800 km Camino through France to the Spanish border. It certainly gave me time to think about the challenges we face in our […]