GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — As the Israel-Hamas war rages on, a Green Bay toymaker and an Allouez rabbi have joined forces to help make a difference for children and families impacted by the violence.
Rick Brunner, founder of Rick’s Toybox, Inc., and Michoel Feinstein, rabbi and co-director of Chabad of the Bay Area, are working together to collect and send supplies and homemade toys to Israel.
“This will be my third time now where my toys are going into a war zone. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Brunner said. “A little old guy in Green Bay, Wisconsin is doing something like this.”
Brunner, who has previously sent his wooden creations to India and Ukraine, said that for the kids on the receiving end of the donations, it is much more than just a toy car.
“It’s more of a mental health tool for them, a moment where it’s going to pull them away from bad situations… We don’t know what they’re really going through. It’ll just let them be a kid again, the way it was before the war broke out,” he explained.
Currently, about 15 volunteers in Fond du Lac do all the wood cutting before 10 volunteers in Green Bay finish the cars. Brunner said the goal for the first shipment is to send more than 500 toy cars.
“It gives you a reason to get up in the morning. It gives you purpose. It just keeps you motivated,” Brunner said. “How many people can say, ‘I helped make a product and shipped it halfway around the world to a warzone country and put a smile on a child’s face?’”
In addition to the toy cars, there is also a supplies drive where winter items, such as clothes and blankets, will be collected to send to families who have been displaced. Donations can be made at Chabad of the Bay Area starting at 5:30 p.m. Sunday. Organizers plan to send the items before Thanksgiving.
“Being that we are always looking to add goodness and kindness and to make the world a better place, given that this is the situation that we have, we now have the opportunity to help those that are especially in need,” Feinstein said. “Being the rabbi here in the community, that gives me an additional opportunity to put that together so that all those people who want to do something can actually have a central location, a point-person in order to practically make that happen.”
Financial contributions to the project can be made on the Rick’s Toybox, Inc. website.
