Western News: December 16, 2021

12
Thursday December 16 2021
Heart-warming feedback from children
WORKSHOP: Movable wooden gorillas are assembled by Sandy Foster, who
has been involved in the Santa Claus Workshop Charitable Trust for the past
eight years.
ACTION: Andrew Grant saws a piece of
pine that will make a toy plough.
• From page 11
Toys for this Christmas were collected
from the workshop in November by
Lions Club members, who then coordinated
the donations.
This meant the volunteers did not
often see the responses of the children,
but they had received heart-warming
feedback in the past, Thompson said.
He had been told of a boy who was
overwhelmed to learn he could keep his
toy and said he had never been given a
present before.
Another time, he gave a toy truck to a
family with a boy and a girl.
The girl sent him a thank you letter
containing three M&Ms.
“I’d given it to her little brother, but
she said: ‘Thank you very much for the
toy, I will get the most use out of it’.”
All toys were popular, but the
volunteers tweaked their range each
year.
The intricate toy sewing machines
would not be made next year.
However, he had a new design for
SKILLS: Neil Pugh, 85, was awarded a QSM in 2020 for his work with
Lions recycling spectacles to the Pacific region. Today he is part of a
group of people who handmake wooden toys to donate at Christmas.
PHOTOS: JOHN COSGROVE
“gorgeous” stacking tower blocks, and
toy boats were also being made.
New volunteers were welcome and no
background in woodwork was necessary,
although those involved tended to
be good with their hands.
Santa’s other volunteers ranged from
Alistair McDonald, a former woodwork
teacher who joined six months ago because
he enjoyed the sense of purpose,
to Sandy Foster, who had worked in
farming and in the army but always
enjoyed DIY.
“There’s a lot of satisfaction when
you see a toy finished . . . it’s worth it,”
Thompson said.