It’s a rare U.S. car manufacturer who can’t find enough workers to meet demand.
When Marlin Dorhout first handed out some small wooden cars to poor children during a visit to Nicaragua in 1999, the hobby woodworker had no idea his toys would become a flourishing industry.
But there were all those beaming faces. And that early toy-giving gesture, made while Dorhout was a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, eventually grew into the Denver- based nonprofit Toys for God’s Kids.
Distribution has reached 289,000 toy cars.
Dorhout now has help from more than 50 volunteer toymakers in several Denver workshops — and more than 100 people on board across the country. The toys have found homes in more than 100 countries, from Haiti and Guatemala to Afghanistan, Kenya and China.
The little cars also have ended up at the Ronald McDonald House in Aurora and in a dozen metro area schools.
The distribution chain is unusual. Toys for God’s Kids ships many cars. Church workers and American soldiers also personally deliver them. Anyone with a suitcase is invited to take a few dozen along on a trip. The toys are free for the giving.
“I had just intended it to be people just from our church,” Dorhout said. “It’s evolved into quite an organization.”
And Dorhout still needs more toymakers. And cash helps too.
“Kids need toys,” Dorhout said. “For many of these kids, it’s their only toy.”
They make pocket-size cars because many of the children who receive them don’t have homes.
The Holly Creek Retirement Community in Centennial is home to a band of a dozen toymakers. They have cranked out about 10,000 cars in the past 12 months.
Gladys DeRidder stopped by Holly Creek on Wednesday to pick up about 400 cars for her congregation, the Third Christian Reform Church of Denver, which will deliver them to their Bible school in Baja, Mexico, just south of Tijuana.
She said children there live in houses made out of wooden pallets, rubber tires and garage doors.
“You should see the way these kids painstakingly paint their cars and put decals on them — oh, my goodness,” DeRidder said. “It’s wonderful.”
At Holly Creek, Glenn James, 82, runs a clean shop. The saws and drills are in the basement, where 86-year-old Russ Yost, 88-year-old Jack Zobel and their “apprentice,” 83-year-old Herb Bowman, cut and saw donated scrap lumber, smooth all edges, drill the windows and pop out little wooden wheels.
“Nothing goes to waste, except maybe the sawdust,” said Yost, who’s been doing this at Holly Creek since 2005.
Operations upstairs, in the art room, involve up to nine ladies who stencil car shapes and windows onto pine blocks.
They pound wheels on axles and stamp “Holly Creek Residents” and “USA” on the little toys. They chat.
“It’s fun,” said Norma Croak.
“We get to exercise our jaws,” said Jaci Draper, who enjoys the socializing the project provides.
“The kids who get these toys are really appreciative,” said Shirley James, Glenn’s wife. “The little girls like them just as much as the little boys do.”
Rose Gates said her church, the Denver South Seventh-Day Adventists, distributes a couple dozen cars a week to children right around Denver.
“Any church — or any synagogue or congregation — can call and ask for toys,” said Holly Creek spokesman Chuck Montera.
Dorhout said the toymakers get as much benefit from the program as the children do. “It’s great therapy for them.”
Delivering the toys isn’t a bad job either.
Richard Swan, a parishioner with Church of the Risen Christ, has been traveling to Guatemala for years to sponsor children through the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging. He returned July 2 from his most recent trip, where his group handed out 300 cars.
“It’s a joy to watch the smiles come over the children’s faces,” Swan said. “These kids have very little in the way of personal possessions. They play with rocks, sticks and ropes.”
And now they play with toy cars stamped USA.
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com
