While Upper School students work on their various projects with the big saws, or busily paint a toy car duck, Nick Rupard, Upper School woodshop teacher, sits at his desk, eyes wide open from the cup of coffee he drinks. One of his students comes into his office to ask him how he can raise the base level of one of the saws. Rupard gets up to fix the saw.

The project that is currently in progress in the woodshop is making wooden toys to give to less fortunate children. The charity of choice is RefugeeOne Service. This idea was brought to Rupard by WGN News in December.

The news piece focused on a former shop teacher from Chicago, Peter Legrand, who had been making wooden toys for children for the past 12 years. The toys–made by him, his friends, and his family–were donated to churches, daycares, and food pantries.

In a Public Insight Network article, Legrand described the emotions he gets when doing this project. “What they don’t know is that by making toys, I get to travel on a road of rewards that more people should experience,” Legrand said. “I have met faces, emotions, tears, and smiles that I simply would not have had access to if I did not do this. I get to stock up on the real stuff I need to feed my soul for the year ahead.”

Outside of Parker, Rupard does not stop giving. He is a part of Quest Theatre, which is committed to offering the community free theater. Quest produces shows that are free of admission charge. According to the Quest Theatre website, the company was made so that “they could perform for the widest possible audience, tell stories that had universal appeal and engage audiences of all ages, excluding no one, no matter what.” Rupard values the public’s ability to access art, no matter if that means his donating homemade toys or doing his part to give people a free evening of theatrical entertainment.

“I think everybody should have access to something homemade art-like,” Rupard said, “and this is just a great way to give back.”

In terms of production, Rupard plans to “mass produce”–his high schoolers will work on specific jobs like cutting, sanding, and painting, and they’ll work from designs that are pre-prepared. This will help increase the efficiency of the process, as Rupard has just the month of November.  He plans to distribute the toys before the holiday break, some time during the week of the 12th of December.

Rupard’s high school woodshop class is in charge of mass producing the toys. His decision to have the high school complete the project and not his middle schoolers, he said, was based on the skill set that the high schoolers have and the understanding they have of this project.

All toys are made out of wood, from the wheels to the body, and are made into the shapes of animals or objects. Some of the cars consist of whales, ducks, monkeys, and even a helicopter.

“It’s a great opportunity to venture outside of the Parker community,” sophomore Emma Adelstein said about working on the project, “and an opportunity to make toys for people that actually need them and deserve them.”

The toys are first made by cutting them out, using a bandsaw, or other saws. Then they are sanded mechanically or by hand. The next step is painting. This is where students are able to really get creative. The last step is assembling the wheels of the cars. All of this work is done in hopes that children at RefugeeOne can enjoy their new homemade toys.