Happy Factory creates more happiness with the help of MHR group
It looks like more and more needy children will be having a merry Christmas this year.
Volunteers showed up in droves to the Taggart Student Center Sunburst Lounge Friday to paint small wooden toys for kids in more than 50 countries.
The project was organized by a group from the management and human resources 3110 class, just one in a series of public service enterprises executed by the class groups.
Kelly Summers, a welding engineering senior, explained the criteria for the group undertaking.
“It had to benefit the community, provide a service of some sort, and the professor [James Hayton] had to approve the project,” Summers said.
So, one member of the group, Nate Terry, a senior in business information systems, contacted a Cedar City-based non-profit organization called The Happy Factory.
The Happy Factory was started up by Charles Cooley, who had intended only to make toys for his grandchildren. He and his wife started giving the toys away, discovering joy in helping the needy.
Now, it has delivered 140,000 toys to 300 humanitarian agencies, one toy box at a time. Each box contains 100 toys.
“It’s a 365-day Christmas season,” said Cooley, a resident of Cedar City, Utah.
Volunteers enjoy getting in on the action.
Sheena Fenn, an undeclared freshman, carefully painted elephant footprints all over a light-blue wooden elephant.
“I just saw the signs and thought it sounded fun and had some extra time,” Fenn said.
Some volunteers counted their help as service hours for their fraternities.
“It’s mandatory for our fraternity to do it,” said Joel Lopez, an undeclared sophomore from the Psi Sigma Phi frat. “[But] it’s cool to help little kids.”
Lopez enjoyed painting the details on a 4×4 fire engine. The volunteer painters crowded the table, and Summers lamented that there wasn’t enough room or toys to accommodate all who wanted to help.
Terry agreed that the number of helpers at the activity exceeded expectations.
“We didn’t think we would get as good of turnout as we had,” Terry said.
At 1:30 p.m. the tables were full and there was a line of 10 people waiting to paint.
“People have responded immediately,” said Ryan Talbot, a sophomore in landscape architecture. “They kind of changed their plans and turned around and helped.” Talbot is one of twelve members of the group.
Some of the students helping joked that they felt like Santa’s elves while painting toys.
“Every once in a while I feel my ears just to make sure they’re not pointy,” said Megan Maughan, a junior in nursing.
The founders of The Happy Factory, Charles and Donna Cooley, said on www.happyfactory.org “We may not be able to make a toy for every child that needs one – but we’re going to try.”
And it appears that students at USU are also going to try.
-marklaroc@cc.usu.edu
Students paint wooden toys in the International Lounge of the Taggart Student Center. (Photo by Michael Sharp)