PDX Toy Library

I love this!

Mr. Rogers Had a Simple Set of Rules for Talking to Children The TV legend possessed an extraordinary understanding of how kids make sense of language.

We will be closing early tomorrow at 12-30, but before that, starting at 10am, there will be a documentary filmmaker here to get some footage of our community enjoying the toy library, and we need kids! If you don’t mind being filmed and you want to come play tomorrow morning, please do!

The film will be a short piece showcasing several local Methodist church buildings that are in transition or experimenting with non-traditional ministry. The Sunnyside Community House is a very unique project that is synthesizing many different services and projects that aren’t typically housed in the same space, all running on the power of community volunteers. I’m really proud to be part of it and I’d love to help Sebastian get the footage he needs to show us off. Come play!

Huge thanks to Melanie Allen, who just came and donated all this awesome stuff! Come get some this Saturday!

Hours Change for today: We will be open from 10am-2pm instead of our usual 10-4.

LAST MINUTE NOTICE: We'll be opening an hour late today. Hours will be 11am-4pm.

I'm out of town and couldn't quite get the whole day covered. On that note, if you sign up to staff the library for just 2 hours per month, that covers your membership, and you mostly just hang out and play with your kids!

As some of you know, the building that PDX Toy Library is housed in, the Sunnyside Community House, is owned by the United Methodist Church General Conference, although there is currently no congregation operating here.

The hope is that the building can continue to operate as a social center of sorts, as it is now, and develop to host even more services to the community.

There is a feasibility study being done on behalf of the Conference now, which includes a survey for neighborhood residents and invested community members, to help determine the future of the building.

If you'd be willing to participate in this survey, please message me.

There is a big event in our building today and some kids walked through, not knowing about the toy library. I was doing some catalog entries with baby dolls and a 7 year old asked me "Do you have any toys besides dolls?" I pointed toward the door to the toy room and said "Check in there". He went in and I heard the gasp and let him know he could get out anything he wanted to play with. He came out looking for his brother and shouting "THERE IS A GIANT ROOM FULL OF FREE TOYS IN HERE!" They spent the next hour building with Legos. Fun times.

This is so cool! I want to take a field trip out there to check it out. I wonder what the chances are of this spreading to Multnomah County?

https://www.hillsboro-oregon.gov/departments/library/explore-the-collections/library-of-things

City of Hillsboro, OR : Library of Things

Toy lending program’s too much of a hit for library to quit The Oakland library is expanding its popular toy-lending program to new branches.

Huge thanks to Dave Wiper of the Guild of Oregon Woodworkers for donating several of these beautiful doll beds and cradles today!

GUESS WHAT. I made an instructional document detailing how to enter items into the Toy Library Catalog! Are you excited? I'm excited! I have been the only person able to do cataloging work for over a year, and now anyone can do it! If you are one of my volunteer members, or you would like to be, I will send you the document and walk you through an item or two in person, and then you can come in any time we're open and process new donations! Yeah! Free membership for 2 hours of volunteer time per month!

Childcare Groups Are Playing Key Role in Pushing Change and Fighting Trump Childcare collectives across the country are forming the backbone of resistance movements.