The annual Kidzone ran from the 11th July through to 16th July 2018. The southland woodworker’s guild again designed and made the wooden toys and supplied the volunteers to run the mega 10 wood work room.
This year we had 2 wooden toys – a clacker or noise maker and a ping pong ball shaker – this was also turned into a basket so in effect we had 3 wooden toys for the children to make and take home. As usual the wood work room was extremely busy with the full sign out quite a few times during the day. The wooden toys proved very popular again.
My thanks go out to all the guild members who spent time making and packaging the toys and also a special thanks to the volunteers who maned the room – this is a vital part of what we do for Kidzone.
The photos don’t do justice to what the room is really like but think of up to 40 children and their parents all hammering away at the same time but not in unison and you get an idea of the noise. Again this year we supplied ear plugs and it was surprising the number of participants who took them – obviously the health ad safety message is getting through to the kids of today.
The smile of the faces of the children that made a wooden toy and showed what they had done is especially pleasing, I know that people have said to me that they treasure the wooden toys that are made a t Kidzone and they live in their homes for many years.
Some families spent up to an hour in our room making the toys and creating their own toys from scrap bits of timber – imagination, wood and nails can make some amazing things.
The noise in the room again was too much for some people but as we are a safety conscious lot we provided ear plugs for anyone that wanted them. I was frequently asked how you stand the noise – my standard reply was – the sound of hammers tapping away is like music to my ears.
Mind you that response did get me some funny looks and smiles. You know the one – he’s finally gone crazy and we will just back away quietly. Just as well they didn’t ask how we stand all the children eh.
We ran a well-organized event again this year my thanks to you all.
My special moment of the festival was a gentleman who brings his family every year and always stops and congratulates us on a well-run event, this year he made a noise maker and he and I did a dance with our noise makers much to the amusement of his family.
Simon Tonkin
SWWG President
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