After he retired and took up woodworking in 1995, Charles Cooley thought he might make a few decorative gnomes for his front lawn and a couple of toys for his grandchildren. But before he knew it, he soon had a house full of toddler-size cars, trucks and animals and nobody to give them to.
So after handing out some of the toys to neighbor kids, Charles and his wife Donna loaded 150 leftover wooden steam shovels, buses, whales, bears and giraffes into their car and drove to Salt Lake City from their home in Cedar City to donate the toys to Primary Children's Medical Center.
"The woman we gave them to started to cry and asked if she could give me a hug," recalls Charles, 70, a balding, jovial man who would make a great St. Nick with the right get-up. "It was the best payday I ever had. I knew right then how I wanted to spend my retirement years."
Fast forward five years and Charles' part-time hobby has grown into a full-time obsession called The Happy Factory. He and Donna now spend eight or more unpaid hours a day creating toys with hundreds of other volunteers for needy children all over the world. That's what they wanted to talk about over a Free Lunch at Chuck-a-Rama during a recent visit to Salt Lake City to drop off another load of toys.
"It's amazing what can happen when people come together for a common cause," says Donna, 65. "It seems that everybody wants to help. For every toy we give away, there's always another child out there somewhere who needs one."
So far, the Cooleys have donated more than 70,000 sturdy wooden toys to hospitals, crisis centers, churches, homeless shelters, orphanages and down-on-their-luck families who just need a toy or two to give their children for Christmas.
The majority of toys are sent to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Humanitarian Center, for distribution to children worldwide who have been victims of war, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and famine.
"The first time I dropped off a box of toys there, a fellow told me, 'Do you know there are millions of children who've never had a toy?' " says Charles. "It hit me like a ton of bricks. I said, 'Well, we probably can't make a drop in the bucket, but here are a few toys.'
"What he told me I'll never forget. He said, 'Brother Cooley, one toy does make a drop in the bucket, and it's a pretty big drop for the child who gets it.' So now we have a new motto: 'We might not be able to make a toy for every child in the world who needs one — but we're going to try.' "
Although the requests keep pouring in, especially now that Christmas is near, the Cooleys aren't worried about keeping up with demand. When they ran out of space in their garage, Dick Grant of Cedar City's Metalcraft Industries donated 1,600 square feet of factory space. A local lumber yard offered supplies, a cabinet mill offered scrap wood and more than 1,000 Cedar City residents lined up to take turns cutting patterns, running band saws and painting toys.
And the good vibes haven't stopped there. Nearly a dozen other Happy Factories are now operating throughout Utah and in such states as Oregon and Arizona, and volunteers will soon be starting a new factory in Salt Lake City.
"I'm thrilled they got the idea from us — we have no competition, no egos to feed," says Charles, as he and Donna prepare to make another toy run. "This idea can go anywhere, and I hope that it does. Bringing a smile to a child's face is what it's all about."
"A Happy Factory in every state," he says, "would be just fine with me."
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