Nevada Woodchucks makes unique toys for local children in need

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – It all started today, December 4, 2024, when one toy became ten toys, a pile of toys.

This is the appointed hour when members of the Nevada Woodchucks begin their work for nearly a year, distributing their handmade toys to 12 local children’s charities.

Woodchuck Randy Pontius is a retired machinist who doesn’t want his skills to go to waste.

“I make the ladders. As a machinist, I can do complicated work,” says Pontius as he shows us a wooden fire engine with a small wooden ladder attached. “Wood is something very special and it tells you what it wants to be.”

Luckily, all the wood here in the Panther Valley warehouse says it wants to be a toy, and it gets its wish.

Woodworkers cut out the shape, and then other group members prepare the wood into one of about a dozen handmade toys.

“For me, each one is a work of art,” says Pontius.

There are hobby horses, airplanes, tractors, dinosaurs and puzzles.

Each one is unique to the woodchuck that invented it. By the end, the group will have made more than 2,500 toys.

But the group cannot rest on its laurels. The toys must be delivered that day, with each organization receiving an equal amount of different toys.

They are sorted and packed. Some of the toys are loaded into private cars and taken to the nonprofit organization.

Other toys will be picked up directly here at the warehouse.

This is what Zinthia Ramirez did on behalf of Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada.

“As soon as they receive the toys, they are very happy,” Ramirez says of the children’s reaction to the toys. “And there is excitement. And they are just in love with these toys that are handmade and handpicked specifically for these children.”

They are not made of plastic. They don’t come from China in a box.

These toys are made with love and consideration, which is why Randy and his woodchuck companions come back year after year.

The Nevada Woodchucks take about a month off and then return in mid-January to begin making their hobby horses, wooden toys and even three-dimensional toys for children in need in Washoe County.

More information: Nevadawoodchucks.org

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