There are three doors at Steve’s Automotives in Longmont. If you open the doors on either end you’ll find just what you expect — a waiting area with a coffee machine, a pile of magazines and some cars being worked on in the back. But, if you open the windowless metal door in the middle, you’d swear you were transported to Santa’s workshop.
While the room is a little dingier than Hollywood depicts Santa’s workshop in the movies, it’s all there — workers wearing Santa hats cheerfully toiling away at their machines as they fill box after box with small wooden toys to be shipped all over the world.
What makes this all the more incredible is that it’s real. These aren’t magical elves with flying reindeer to help them deliver they toys, they’re just people who volunteer whatever time they can to help brighten Christmas for underprivileged children.
Known as the Toys for Kids Project and organized by the Longmont chapter of the Kiwanis International Club, Marv Van Peursem the program coordinator estimates the club has built and delivered more than 60,000 toys since he started it eight years ago.
For many volunteers, Toys for Kids is so rewarding they’ve come to treat like a job.
“This time of year I put in more hours here than when I was working,” Van Peursem joked. “But seriously, a lot of us are retired so we have the time and it’s just a fun way to give back.”
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