A testimonial from Safe Passage – Here’s a story regarding Wheels of a Dream from one of our advocates.
Just before Christmas…a 6 year old boy came to SP for an interview. He was nervous and at first…didn’t want to go back with the interviewer. But at some point…he went back to the room and talked about why he was here.
When this little boy was finished and came back to the playroom…he passed the toy chest which happened to be open and he saw a wooden giraffe on wheels. His face lit up and he dropped to his knees and picked it up. He immediately put it on the ground and pushed it to move. He yelled for his mom who came out of the playroom and excitedly showed her his favorite new toy. Mom told us that they had just been to the zoo and he had seen a giraffe for the first time. She smiled as she watched her son play. The smile turned into laughter when he jumped up and down after learning that he could actually take this wonderful toy home.
TESSA testimonies 2017
A 4 year old boy came in with his Mom and he was very scared. He spent quite a bit of time warming up to the Children’s team and what finally sealed the trusting relationship was a handmade, wooden car. His eyes lit up when he saw several of the wooden cars. We brought several out and he began to play with them and open up to the team. When it was time for him to leave with his Mom, he did not want to go. He was told he could pick a car to take with him and he was soooo excited and happy! He picked the car with the #1 on it because it made him feel “special”.
A 12 year old girl chose an elephant toy and was so excited! She thought it was beautiful and lit up when she got to pick such a beautiful toy! A few weeks later, the same girl said she had taken the beautiful, wooden elephant to school with her as part of an assignment. The assignment was for a babysitting unit and they needed to bring a toy and describe how it would be educational for a child they were babysitting. She describe how the toy was both beautiful and fun and that it would be educational for many reasons; such as, discussing how it was built, what tools may have been needed to build it, talk about the different shapes it had, discussing that it was an elephant and learning about elephants, how the wheels work and what makes them work…. The young lady received so much joy, happiness, education and was able to educate others about so many things, as a result of this very special, handmade toy.
Testimony
A District 20 employee goes over to her daughter’s house for a visit and is sharing the Wheels Of A Dream story and all the different wooden toys they make. The employee continues the story about how many of the volunteers work for District 20 and the team has made over 1600 toys for children in need.
Her daughter excuses herself, goes to her daughter’s room and comes back with a wooden toy. She explains how important the toy is to her daughter and she plays with it all the time since leaving the hospital.
When she was in the hospital one of the nurses brought a tray of toys to her room. She picked a special toy thinking it was only to be shared while she was in hospital care. The day she was discharged she gave the nurse the toy for another child. Much to her surprise, the nurse said “that is your toy to take home”.
This story gets better. The District 20 employee was handed the toy by her daughter, she turned it over to discover Wheels Of A Dream had been wood burned for identification. Neither mom nor daughter had any idea prior to that day Wheels Of a Dream had impacted another life.