Image by heavenlystuffed via FlickrI have talked a bit about this in the past, but today I want to share with you my aspirations on contributing to my community. Awhile back I posted a few things about The Toy Society. It's an organization that promotes the crafting of toys to be given freely to your community. What is great about this is that their motivation for this is to give to others without gaining anything from it. With that said, I am going to make a goal to make lots of toys for my community.
So far I have only done about 2 or 3 'toy drops' (what the toy society refers them to). I'd like to significantly increase the amount of toy drops I make for my community. The beautiful thing to me about making handmade toys is for children to find them in their neighborhood. The child is receiving a gift out of love absolutely free. When we are children, situations like this impact us differently and stay with us for the rest of our lives. My hope is that these toy drops can add to the building blocks these children gain throughout their lives in understanding that they are loved by someone.
What I have in mind is making 10 or so toys at a time, preparing them in bags with the toy society information, then dropping them off in small groups of certain locations in my neighborhood. There are a lot of pros to toy dropping as well. Let me share some with you.
If you are new to crocheting, have an appetite for learning more of it and your toys are pilling up fast, this is a great way to keep the flow going! Plus you are blessing a little child with a handmade treasure. Not only will you become proficient at your craft, but you have room to be creative and experiment as well. If you are trying to find your style, master a new technique or whatever it may be, this possibly may be your answer to doing that and investing in a little one's life by giving the toys away. Sometimes when we are crocheting toys for our kids they get bored with them fast. I have noticed that with my daughter lately.
Although my daughter cherishes her Totoro hat and perhaps the crocheted cookies I made for her, a lot of the things I have made have gone neglected compared to her other toys. Children love contrast, just like adults. Perhaps my daughter isn't too fond of all the crochet toys because they seem the same to her. But, a child that has never owned a crochet toy or are unfamiliar with handmade ones will most likely love their toy drop because it is 'contrasting' to all their other store bought toys.
I hope this post has been of some help to you. I would like to try posting more often to keep you all up to date. Feel free to share any of your ideas iin the comments section of this post. I'd love to hear from you!
I think this is lovely! Many children can use them - hospitals, churches etc. the children need them the most in these communities, the children who seem the least of us, yet are the most precious in His eyes. Thank you for this post :D
ReplyDelete@KippysSoMature Thank you for your comment! Those are great ideas for toys. I think perhaps hospitals might have a more difficult time sterilizing crochet toys. I looked into this awhile back and that was one of the issues they brought to my attention. I liked your comment about how children are the most precious in His eyes :) I looked at your etsy shop and like what you have going! Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeletehello, rachel! josh & i were so fortunate to meet you & eric this weekend! i love your blog! & this is a great post, something i need to ponder more, too. i've been wondering lately how i could continue to grow in my photography in order to simply bless my community. i like thinking about doing these things not to make money, but simply to bring joy to others!
ReplyDeletei didn't realize it, but it seems i've been doing amigurumi since i started crocheting at age 6! i grew up in the peruvian jungle, and every saturday afternoon i would ride my bike over to "grandma" pritchard's house for crochet lessons. it was so humid in the jungle that we had to crochet with baby powder all over our hands to keep the yarn from sticking to our sweaty fingers! my first project was a pink bunny crocheted around a l'eggs pantyhose egg. i still have that sweet & tacky little thing. but it birthed in me a love for crochet, &, well, seeing your blog makes me think about picking up some amigurumi-style crochet projects now. heron loves 'ponyo', so perhaps something from that story? (btw, the totoro hat is awesome)