A fire that ripped through a toy workshop in Pasco County left The ToyMakers, an organization that makes and delivers handmade wooden toys to sick and needy children, fearing they would not be able to spread Christmas cheer this year.
The fire destroyed the Pasco County workshop in April, where volunteers planed the wood -- the first step in the toy making process.
Months later, a brand new shop sits in its place.
"I'm excited, we're all excited to actually get in here and start doing the work," said ToyMaker Tom Loughlin.
"When that fire went, it was pretty disastrous, we weren't sure what we were going to do,” said ToyMaker Carl Hansen. “The good news is we kinda re-evaluated our situation, realized we had enough inventory to meet most of our deliveries, had enough wood that we could go ahead and use our second shop here to get enough toys ready for all our deliveries."
Hansen says the ToyMakers were able to stay on track with last year’s numbers and deliver some 21,000 toys.
The volunteers say they couldn’t be rebuilding without help from the community. More than 50 pieces of equipment were donated and cash donations totaled more than $14,000.
“The good news is the community really came to bat for us," Hansen said. "With the result of contributions and cash, we were able to start the rebuilding process.”
The ToyMakers say the new workshop is bigger and better.
"As you can see, we're not totally squared away but the shop is built, we're really proud of it," said Loughlin.
The ToyMakers hope the workshop will be fully operational by March.
Meantime, the volunteers are pleased they were able to push through tragedy and still spread Christmas cheer to children.
"We get so many smiles out of our toys that's what makes it worthwhile for us to do it," said Hansen.”