A popular and much-needed east Auckland organisation that’s enabled thousands of local children to play with toys they otherwise wouldn’t have access to is celebrating a major milestone.
The Howick and Pakuranga Toy Library is this year turning 30 and it’s inviting the public to help celebrate at a birthday party with entertainment including music and ballons from 9.30am to 12pm on Saturday, June 14.
The toy library is based below the Howick Presbyterian Church in Vincent Street.
Two of its librarians, Sarah McNeil and Gemma Chuah, say it provides a vital service to numerous local families.
“It’s for children who are newborns up to six years old,” McNeil says.
“We have toys for all children including special needs or sensory-deprived kids.
“We have a lot of birthday parties that we supply slides and rollercoasters for, so the big stuff that people don’t have in their house.
“We also do soft play toys for younger kids. You name it, if it’s robust enough for kids to play with, we’ve probably got it.”
The toy library works on a membership system.
It costs $100 for an annual membership and $30 for five visits or three months, and each toy has its own fortnightly cost which ranges from 50 cents up to $4 or $5.
“We have 206 member families at the moment, up from 164 this time last year,” Chuah says.
“We’re really continuing to grow since we moved to this Howick location, it’s amazing.
“We have 300 toys on loan and almost 500 toys issued in the last 30 days.
“It’s a really big group of people now. We had 136 families use the toy library in the last three months.”
Some of the toy library’s member families use it as it’s a more affordable option than buying new toys, while others like the sustainability element.
“You’re borrowing it and didn’t have to buy it so you’re not having the packaging and everything else,” Chuah says.
“Some families come to us because they live in these teeny tiny box houses and don’t have space for all of these toys.”
The toy library utilities a range of funding sources and was recently the recipient of an “extremely generous” grant from the Howick Local Board, Chuah says.
“That helps fund our operational costs like rent and staff costs, and we apply for lotteries funding.
“There’s a national toy library body which helps to support all the toy libraries, and we do a bit of fundraising like a sausage sizzle at Bunnings.
“At our big birthday party coming up we’ll have a toy sale and a bake sale.
“We’ve done other little community things and now that we have a lot of members it’s funding itself really well.”
The Howick and Pakuranga Toy Library is at 11 Vincent Street, Howick.
