Residents Use Their Woodworking Skills To Make the Holidays Happier for Children

December 4, 2023

The holiday spirit lives throughout the year in the woodshop at Emerald Heights as residents engage in a labor of love. Every year, members of the woodworking group make toys to donate to local charities in time for the winter holidays.

This year, the group made more than 600 toys. One member, Ernie Ruf, made over 170 of the toys, from sewing machines with movable parts to elaborate, two-story dollhouses complete with furniture.

Heidi Smith is the group member who organized this year’s toy show, where all of the toys are on display for other residents in the community to see. She also took the lead on arranging the donations and contributed toys she made — cute little dinosaurs that wiggle when pulled along by a string.

The woodshop members don’t sell the toys, even though they easily could in the Emerald Heights gift shop. In the spirit of the holidays, they donate the toys they so lovingly crafted in their woodshop.

Heidi’s History With Emerald Heights and the Woodshop

Nearly a quarter of a century ago, Heidi’s parents moved from their home in Bellevue to Emerald Heights after they found out her father, who was in his early 60s, had Alzheimer’s disease.

After they settled in, Heidi’s mother told her it was the smartest thing they’d ever done and suggested that Heidi, who lived in Oregon then, put her name on the wait list. Before Heidi got around to doing so, her parents had her name added to the wait list for her birthday!

Heidi knew several other residents from visiting her mother and father over the years, so when she moved to Emerald Heights in 2014, the community already felt like home in many ways.

Heidi’s father had been a member of the woodworking group, and Heidi, who says she has always enjoyed working with her hands, looked into joining soon after she moved to Emerald Heights.

Initially, she recalls, the group’s leader was hesitant because no woman had ever expressed interest in being part of the group. But Heidi came on board, and today there are five women among the group’s 50 or so members.

Residents Benefit From — and Support — the Woodshop

Members of the woodworking group do more than make toys. For instance, they repair furniture for other community residents. In many cases, woodworkers can make the furniture look as good as new.

As another example, one resident found when she moved in that a large, heavy coffee table she had didn’t fit so well in her new living room. She asked some members of the group if they could modify it for her.

Heidi and a few of the other woodworkers removed the table legs, took more than a foot off the length, rounded edges on the shortened side to match the rest and then refinished the surface.

The table’s owner was thrilled with the results, according to Heidi, and made a generous donation to the woodshop during Emerald Heights’ annual fund drive. She’s also a “good advertiser” for the group’s services, Heidi says, touting them to other residents.

The woodworking group uses the donations it receives to buy equipment for the woodshop, such as the SawStop table saws it purchased not long ago. The saws are designed with an electrical safety signal that activates a brake if skin comes into contact with the blade, causing the saw to stop immediately. 

As membership in the group increased, the woodworkers eventually needed more space than they had in the original 900-square-foot woodshop. Since the group’s endeavors benefit so many others within and beyond the Emerald Heights community, management was happy to allocate additional space to the group.

Who Gets the Toys?

Various organizations have received the woodworking group’s toys over the years, including Ronald McDonald House and Seattle Children’s Hospital. When the pandemic began, some organizations would only accept monetary donations, but others, including the ones below, were and still are, delighted to receive the handmade toys.

• Fisher House Foundation, an international nonprofit organization that builds homes where military and veteran families can stay free of charge to be near a loved one who’s in the hospital
  
• The Forgotten Children’s Fund, a volunteer organization in the Seattle area that has been bringing holiday joy to underprivileged children and their families for nearly 50 years by purchasing and collecting donated gifts, wrapping them, and having Santa and his elves deliver them
  
• Jubilee Reach, a nonprofit charitable organization in Bellevue that serves families in a variety of ways, such as by offering English-as-a-second-language (ESL) classes, providing before- and after-school care and tutoring services, and partnering with the Bellevue School District to build relationships with students in elementary, middle and high school

Emerald Heights Residents Enjoy Helping Others

Volunteering and giving back to the community — both the Emerald Heights community and the greater community that surrounds us — has been an integral part of the Emerald Heights culture from the very start.

Some residents volunteer their time. They make items to donate, like the toys the woodworkers create. They provide assistance to other residents, such as helping them learn new computer skills. They visit the elementary school on a regular basis and read to students. They lead committees and interest groups, and they maintain the nature trail on campus.

Other residents make generous donations, contributing to food drives, fundraising efforts and other worthy causes throughout the year.

Some find creative ways to help without even thinking about it as volunteering. For example, Heidi used to take her retired therapy dog, a Goldendoodle named Kindle, to visit residents in Corwin Center, our health care center. Kindle made fast friends and always brightened the day when he and Heidi would visit.

There are all kinds of volunteer activities for seniors at Emerald Heights, especially during this season of giving. So many residents participate in these activities and reflect the warm, caring spirit of our community, and this spirit is just one of the reasons we have many people here who, like Heidi, are second-generation residents.  

If Emerald Heights sounds like a good fit for you or someone you love, we invite you to come have a look around. Just fill out our brief contact form and we’ll get in touch with you to arrange a visit.