Lake Forest High School Woodcraft Students help Toys for Tots


During the spring of 2009 one section of Mr. Johnson's CAD Engineering students were asked to design wooden toys for children ages 3 and under. This year a suggestion was given to try and design a toy that represented the Toys for Tots logo of a train set. The students designed the toys on our Computer Aided Design (CAD) software and then created wooden prototypes of their designs. The students presented their designs to Staff Sgt. Christopher Kemery of the US Marine Toys for Tots Foundation.  After considering various aspects of the process and the design a toy train set was selected for development. Beginning in the month of November 2009, the Woodcraft students were presented with the challenge to produce the design as part of a mass production unit in the class. Two sections of Woodcraft 1 students participated in the project. Each class was responsible for creating the toy trains all of the way through the production model discussed in class.

The students raised over $2300 to pay for all of the materials used to build the toys. Based on this number the students set projections, helped to build jigs and fixtures, took on various roles of production and inspection, and worked very hard to complete the designs before winter break.

After a month and a half of hard work the students were able to complete 140 toy train sets which included a locomotive, coal car, and caboose. On December 20th the toys were delivered to the Lake Forest Police and Fire Station drop off location of the US Marine Toys for Tots Foundation. The toys will be distributed to families across Lake County Illinois and some parts of southern Wisconsin this year.

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