Man from Ontario wanted to help Nova Scotians who lost everything in wildfires. He sent them toys
When Andy Tamas heard about the Nova Scotia wildfires last month, he wanted to do something to help.
The Ontario man contacted his friend, Denis St. Pierre, who had recently moved to Nova Scotia to be closer to his grandchildren, to ask him how they were doing.
St. Pierre was doing well, but his daughter and her young family had lost their home and everything in it – including a wooden rocking horse her father had built for her when she was a child.
“It was a bit of a family heirloom…she loved it and of course it and a lot of other things went up in flames that day,” St. Pierre told CBC Radio’s Information Morning Nova Scotia on Thursday.
St. Pierre asked Tamas about a series of plans to make another rocking horse to replace the one lost in the fire. But that got Tamas thinking about something else.
He decided to send some wooden toys to St. Pierre’s two young granddaughters.
“I put some in the box and sent them to him and he said they were a big hit,” Tamas said Information morning.
St. Pierre said his granddaughters loved the wooden toys, which include two planes, two cars, and a hippo that says “chomp, chomp, chomp” when you roll it across the floor.
“Toys these days, a lot of them are made of plastic or whatever, plush toys, and this is something completely different,” St. Pierre said.
“They just love that there’s something they can play with on the floor, the little cars, how they roll around, and they had a lot of fun with it.”
Information morning – NS8:51Group building toys for seniors for kids who lost everything in wildfires
A group of elderly men make toys for children who have lost everything in the bushfires. The friendship between two men – one in Ontario and one now here in Nova Scotia – is the beginning of this goodwill effort.
A good deed inspires greater effort
But Tamas didn’t stop there. He said their delight at a simple box of wooden toys has inspired a larger movement across the country.
He is a member of the Men’s Shed in Arnprior, Ontario, a national group where men gather to do crafts, work wood and play games – and avoid loneliness.
He contacted Men’s Sheds Canada to see if this could become a bigger initiative.
“There are wildfires all over the country and there are families [St. Pierre’s] daughter’s position everywhere,” Tamas said.
“And there’s a whole bunch of dudes, old guys like me… retiring.”
The boys really got into it… it was really heartwarming to see.-Andy Tamas
Tamas said Men’s Sheds Canada was happy to take the initiative, so he enlisted men from all over the country, from Arnprior to Squamish, BC. One group even donated 50 locomotive toy sets to children in need.
“This thing has grown from me sending some toys to Denis on a kind of national collaborative movement, which is really worth it,” he said.
But a challenge, he said, was the shipping costs to ship the toys. Not wanting this to deter these efforts, he contacted his local Lions Club to see if they could help.
They were more than willing to help, he said, even hosting a “suit party” on Wednesday.
“We had a bunch of toys ready to go, so they took it and packed it up and posted it yesterday and it should arrive at your side of the world soon,” he said.
Part of the toys go to the St. Margarets Bay Toy Library in Upper Tantallon.
Tamas said he is pleased with the group’s efforts to help families affected by the wildfires.
“The guys really got into it. You see a bunch of old dudes driving little cars and planes. It was really heartwarming to see,” he said.
