Although it’s situated a few degrees south of the North Pole, the wood shop at Glacier High School has been bearing a striking resemblance to Santa’s workshop for the past two months.
Throughout the course of four periods a day, the shop has echoed with the sounds of saws and sanders, routers and wrenches as students transformed pieces of wood into sturdy wooden cars, trucks, excavators, and helicopters. Soon, the wooden toys will appear under Christmas trees or in stockings across the valley as part of the local Toys for Tots project that serves more than 1,000 Flathead families each year.
The U.S. Marine Corps Reserve’s Toys for Tots project collects and distributes new toys to needy children every Christmas, and for the 15th consecutive year, Glacier shop teacher Dennis Latimer and his students took part in the program, churning out gifts as part of a hands-on classroom project that teaches students a skilled craft while also giving back to the community.
This year, Latimer said his students made upwards of 200 toys ranging from planes to trains to automobiles.
All in all, it takes about two months to complete the project, but according to students and teachers, it’s time well spent.
“We’ve found that there is a need for this and it’s a lot of fun for our students to get involved and help the community through what they can do with their own hands,” Latimer said.
Having spent his 36-year career in education, Latimer is retiring at the end of this school year, but he’s confident the project will continue. Having taught high school wood shop classes in Troy, Ryegate and Kalispell, Latimer is familiar with the rewards students reap having created something with their own hands and through their own vision.
Those rewards are even greater when it’s for a good cause.
“Fifteen years ago I was looking for a mass production project that would benefit the community and kids who are disadvantaged,” Latimer said. “I came up with this and the response from the students has been tremendous. They take a lot of pride in it.”
The students build the toys in mass-assembly style, taking up different jobs on the assembly line — building wheels, routing out helicopter cockpits, cutting out forms, sanding, and assembling.
Sophomore Louis Tedrick helped build 535 wheels in two weeks, but didn’t at all mind the monotony.
“We only needed 420 but we made sure to have extras,” he said with a hint of pride.
The toys go to kids whose families are experiencing difficult financial times and who might otherwise miss out on some of the magic of the holidays. In recent years, more than 2,000 children in Flathead County received toys through Toys for Tots. This year, the campaign expects the need to be greater.
“I like helping with it because it’s helping the community and giving back to the community,” Justin Lee, a senior, said. “It helps make a kid’s Christmas better, and that makes it worthwhile.”
On Dec. 17, a volunteer from the Toys for Tots program picked up the toys crafted by Latimer’s students, trucking them off to pick-up locations.
It’s a fitting method of transport given the laser-engraved motto inscribed on the dozens of dump trucks the students made — Trucking for Tots.
And while it’s been rewarding to watch the stacks of toys mount on a display table outside Latimer’s wood shop, a catalog of toys that includes 3-D puzzle cubes made by students using a 3-D printer in a neighboring engineering class, students said the greatest reward comes from knowing that Flathead Valley families will enjoy a bountiful holiday season.
“My favorite part of this project has been knowing that kids are getting these toys that we’ve been making for two months, and that it’s going to make them happier during the holidays,” Tedrick said.