Stefan Bradley
Stefan Bradley
Located on Raymond St in Sale, Wellington Toy Library provides children aged between six months and eight years with the opportunity to play with an extensive variety of educational and fun toys.
The community service is managed by a volunteer committee of members, who help with the duty roster, stocktake and fundraising about four hours a year.
Board games, construction sets, wooden puzzles, sand pit toys, costumes, bath toys, jigsaws, tunnels, ride-on bikes, musical toys, rocking horses, aqua play items, painting easels, and many more toys are available for families to borrow or play with.
Volunteer coordinator and committee member Rachael Stevens said parents could borrow three toys, plus a game or a puzzle, for two weeks.
“The best thing about using this facility is [parents] get to interact and socialise with other parents from different community areas, such as from Defence or other schools,” she said.
“They also get the benefit of not being pestered for toys 24/7, because when they come in it’s like a treasure hunt for kids with over 1200 toys in our collection, and at the moment we have 54 active parents.”
Rachael said play was essential for children’s growth and development.
“They develop their fine and gross motor skills, their speech and their cognitive functions, among other benefits,” she said, adding the library kept this in mind when selecting toys for the collection.
New committee president, Amy Hutty, said borrowing was more environmentally-friendly, and allowed parents to keep toys in the house at a minimum.
“Kids grow and develop so quickly, so you’re not having to fork out money each time to buy toys for their developmental stage,” Amy said.
The toy library operates Fridays from 3pm to 5pm, and Saturday mornings from 10am to noon.
The Saturday morning slot was recently added in response to community feedback, with the 10am to noon sessions on Tuesdays no longer running after today.
“Saturday is more family-friendly,” said Rachael.
“More families are available on weekends, so we’re hoping that this change will not only increase our membership, but also allow us to increase the number of volunteers too.”
For more information about membership fees and conditions, email wellingtonlibrary@gmail.com
