Kawana Island timber off-cuts
find a good home

There is a team of Toymakers at Living Choice Kawana Island who work throughout the year creating items for the Annual Toymakers’ Handover event in December.

While making these much-loved items, there are often a lot of off-cuts. So what happens to the off-cuts? Resident George Humeniuk puts them to good use by donating them to the local pre-school’s Porpoise Children program, to be used at their hammering table.

It all came about when a parent of a pre-schooler came to see George one day and asked what he did with the off-cuts in the workshop. When George told him that it all went into landfill, the parent asked if they could be collected for the pre-school.

Encouraged, George now diligently makes up several buckets with certain shapes and sizes for the pre-school. He said, “If someone is good enough to teach children to drive a nail in timber, that is brilliant!”

With an assortment of off-cuts, the children recently made little stand-up tables. It took time and persistence to balance the top and stand it up on its own.

According to the pre-school, hammering and tool use helps to develop children’s gross and fine motor skills; hand-eye coordination and grip/hand strength whilst teaching the importance of health and safety.

The Porpoise children at the pre-school have a workshop of their own and they love receiving new buckets of off-cuts to work with, sending letters of thanks to George for the donations.