Impact

Working at a place called the Happy Factory, we can’t really help but smile. Spending hours tracing, cutting, sanding, routing, branding, and oiling toys goes by quickly because of the photographs of poor children all around the world holding the very toys we are helping produce… Knowing that in just over a week we will be blessed enough to hand each of the 104 children at the orphanage in Mexico one of these toys, we can’t really help but love the work we’ve been doing all week.

I think the most inspiring part of this week has been listening to Charles Cooley, the founder of the organization, tell stories of the children who have received these toys. Charlie and his wife Donna started the Happy Factory on accident. About 15 years ago they made wood cars for their grandkids in their garage. After they ran out of grandkids to give the toys to, they gave some to the local children’s hospital. Soon, there was a high demand for their toys in many different places and Charles and Donna have responded to that need with the help of hundreds of volunteers. Today there are 24 branches around the world. Each time this pot-bellied, deep-throated retired man tells us a story about a child receiving a toy, tears come to his eyes and it is apparent why he and his wife are spending their retirement ‘working’ 8-5 for no pay… because each of those 100,000 toys they help produce every year carries its own story of love and of hope and, as Charles says, “that’s the greatest salary in the world.”

Their story is encouraging to me because it reminds me of how God can take such simple desires and grow them into aspirations which will change the world. They started out making a few toys for their grandkids and are now making toys for His children all across the globe…you never know what kind of an impact following your heart can have.

Kelly