Page 22 - Flathead Beacon // 12.14.16

Toys for the Holidays
HOW TO HELP TOYS FOR TOTS
Toys for Tots is still gathering items until Dec. 19, and there are numerous places around the valley to drop o a new, unwrapped toy. A full list of drop-o locations can be found at www. columbia-falls-mt.toysfortots.org.
TOP Bob Redinger shows wooden toys he is donating to Toys for Tots. BOTTOM Edwin Toren shows toys in his workshop.
the dozens of toys spread out on the shop oor. There were boxes full of wooden cars, a crate of tic-tac-toe games and multiple airplanes with spinning propel- lers waiting to be piloted by little hands. Toren estimates he has made 50 di erent types of toys over the years, most of them of his own design, inspired by woodwork- ing magazines or from his own ideas.
“It’s really become my passion,” he said. “I just love doing it.”
Toren starts working on a new batch of toys almost immediately after the Marines pick up the previous load to dis- tribute to children a few weeks before Christmas. He said he will often build 20 or 30 of the same type of toy at the same time because it is much more e cient. Some toys, like the wooden cars, take only a few pieces of wood to construct. But others, like the doll cribs, can take upwards of 30 di erent pieces.
Toren said he works on the toys every day, except Sunday, when he and his wife go to church. He rarely takes a day o either, even after he sliced o part of his index nger earlier this year while mak- ing a batch of yo-yos.
“That taught me to be a little more careful,” he said, showing o his chopped nger. “But growing up on a farm on the east side makes you tough.”
One of the only times Toren stops mak- ing toys is when he makes caskets, which
he sells to cover the cost of toy making. What Toren loves most about his wooden toys is their longevity. He said the toys he made for his grandchildren have lasted years and have been used by
multiple siblings.
“I like that these toys can been handed
down from generation to generation,” he said. “It’s not like some of these plastic toys you see these days that won’t even last until tomorrow.”
Sean Weeks, campaign coordinator for Toys for Tots in Flathead County, said that the handmade wooden toys are always among the rst to go when people come for presents.
“Toys like that are rare now,” he said. “There are just not a lot of people out there making things by hand anymore, especially wooden toys.”
Redinger, 89, of Kalispell has been making wooden toys for more than a decade. Redinger, who was a chemist for the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. and retired in the 1980s, picked up wood- working as a way to stay busy. Thirteen years ago, Redinger learned about a local man who made toys for the Toys for Tots e ort. He reached out and o ered to cut pieces to help, but before he knew it he was making toys on his own.
Redinger keeps one of every type of toy he makes so that he has a pattern to fol- low in the future. In his basement, there
22
DECEMBER 14, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM