Toybank's in town!

Toybank's first toy collection drive is on!

I thought it's always nice to get started by creating awareness in the neighborhood first. Hence the first toy collection drive is happening in my society next weekend :)

Hope we get loads of toys from everyone. These toys will be segregated according to age groups of 1-3, 4-7, 8-12 and gift-wrapped. They'll be given to NGOs providing non formal education to kids in and around Pune. We have already identified a couple of them who have expressed interest in taking the toys.

Anyone in Pune who's interested in volunteering for Toybank or anybody who wish to donate toys, gift wrapping sheets or stationery required for gift-wrapping, please contact me on toybank-pune@toybank.co.in.

Volunteers from Bangalore, please write in to us at mail-bangalore@toybank.co.in and if you are in Mumbai write to us at mail@toybank.co.in

Watch this space for more!

Say hello to Toybank Pune

Hey all!

How's everybody doing??

You must be wondering if Toybank shut down its Bangalore operations. We apologize for not being in action for close to 5 months! The last event in Bangalore was on 21st of Dec for kids from Annanya.

Time for a quick recap!

Coordinators for Toybank Bangalore:
Vinay D R and I are the coordinators for Toybank Bangalore. The Bangalore Chapter started on 18th Aug 2007.

The journey so far:
We had toy distribution events with Nele (18th Aug) and Makkala Jagriti (8th Sept), Swanthana , Suraksha Makkala Rakshane (2nd Dec) and amazing toy collection drives in Raheja Residency, Koramangala (22nd Sept) and Akme Harmony (5th Jan 2008) . We celebrated Children's Day with kids from Balajothi Centre for the Disabled, Benson Town. Also we had a fantastic time with kids from Annanya where we celebrated Christmas on the 21st of Dec!

A lot of changes have happened at Toybank Bangalore in the past 7 months.

I moved out of Bangalore in mid October last year to Mumbai and then to Pune in December. Since then I have been caught up with work and then there was my 'marriage':-). Now we are working on building up the Toybank Pune Chapter!

Vinay works for Motorola, Bangalore and has moved to Pre sales a year ago. His new role requires him to travel extensively abroad and hence he too isn't able to give a lot of time for arranging more events.

Till now we were using iVolunteer's Bangalore office for the gift wrapping sessions as we don't have an office in Bangalore. We thank Prarthana and iVolunteer immensely for giving us the space! Even now I guess there are a lot of toys lying around at their office :-)

We are now looking for active volunteers in Bangalore and also a couple of coordinators who would arrange toy collection drives/ toy gift wrapping sessions and toy distribution events.

If you are interested to coordinate or volunteer for Toybank Bangalore, please write to us on mail-bangalore@toybank.co.in

Also volunteers interested in volunteering for Toybank Pune, please do write to us for volunteering opportunities and any queries at toybank-pune@toybank.co.in

Be the reason behind their smile.

Back with a Bang!!

After a short break, Toybank Bangalore is back in action !!

With the Children's Day around the corner, we at Toybank definitely won't be idle this month :). We have decided to bring more smiles to the children in Bangalore by celebrating Children's Day with them!

So join us at these events happening this week:
(1) Children's Day with kids of Balajothi Centre for the Disabled - Benson Town.
Date : 14th November 2007
Time: 9.30 AM onwards ( around 2-3 hours)

If you wish to drop in and make it more special, here's the address -
Balajothi Centre for the Disabled
# 25, 2nd main, S.K.Garden
Benson Town, Bangalore – 560046

For landmark please contact the Director Mr. J.M. Balaraj at 23541940 or 9341907162.

(2) Inauguration of a new Makkala Jagriti learning centre in partnership with Dept. of Women & Child Development, Govt. of Karnataka.

Toybank is giving away toys to Makkala Jagriti's new learning centre this Saturday. These toys will go to the 'toy space' at the centre.

What are you waiting for!??

If you want to donate a toy and make this Children's Day a special one to a child or if you have any queries or suggestions, please write to us mail-bangalore@toybank.co.in

Watch out for this space for more events and activities happening at Toybank!

Screening Toys for Lead!

"Toymaker Fisher Price is to recall almost one and a half million Chinese-made toys over fears that their paint contains too much lead"

This news hit the world close to 2 months back with Fisher Price, a subsidiary of US toy giant Mattel Inc, announcing on 2 August that it would be recalling some of Lee Der's [Mattel's sub-contractor] Chinese-made toys, affecting 83 product-types sold around the world.

Consumers all over started to worry as many of these toys were either already sold or ready to be sold in the markets. Mattel has apologized for the same and has promised to intensify their testing standards. Mattel has also answered few basic quests and given safety recall facts on its site.

While all this was in my mind for a few days now, I stumbled upon a google ad on my blog which directed me to a page on Niton.com

Niton has devised a product - a Handheld NITON x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzer, which provides quick and easy screening of toys and other consumer goods for lead, cadmium, mercury and other toxic metals. Niton has a distributor in India. Find the contact info here.

Lets assume that you've now tested your child's toys. In future whenever you buy a toy how would you identify and make sure if your child's toy contains lead? Here are some tips I found which might be useful for parents to have a check if their child is in a no-danger zone while playing with a toy.

Check out for -

• Dull, grey-looking metal.
• Pieces that seem heavy for their size.
• If you rub a piece of jewelry against a sheet of paper and it leaves a grey line, it's probably made of lead.
• Bright colors, especially orange and red.
• Soft plastics, as lead is used as a stabilizer to help keep the plastic soft.

Find more information and tips here.