However, there is one activity that the kids gravitate toward.

Painting and decorating wood cutouts made by volunteers at Bennett’s Beavers, a non-profit workshop operated out of the old Hamburg Township volunteer fire station on Stone Street in the village, has become super popular among kids at C.S. Mott and dozens of other children’s hospitals across the U.S.

Being a sick kid in the hospital is hard. But engaging in playful activities not only “creates normalcy,” it is also “healthful for their recoveries,” said Dan Fischer, who directs the Child and Family Life Department at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor.

Fischer said the impact lasts long after a child’s hospital stay end. Many families cherish the wood cutouts their kids have decorated and leave them on their mantles after they come home or, in sad cases, pass on.

“It really becomes a legacy of their hospital experience. It is about a time in their life that is incredibly powerful for these families,” he said.

Fischer said child life specialists have also worked with kids bedside, when they are not well enough to go the activity rooms.

“We say, it’s a little bit fun out of a hospital stay that’s really not supposed to be fun,” he said.

Jim Bennett started donating wood cutouts to C.S. Mott, in 1995. His sister Margaret was volunteering there as “a baby hugger” and met a young boy who “really liked race cars,” Bennett said. The hospital asked for “more and more,” as rumors of the wooden toys “went from one playroom to another” and every kid wanted to decorate one.

Flash forward twenty years and Bennett’s Beavers is averaging nearly 1,000 wood cutouts a week. Last year, twenty-five volunteers made 51,768 wood cutouts for kids at 26 facilities across 13 states.

In January, the township deeded them the old 1946 firehouse for a dollar. It is where Bennett and his oldest brother, original volunteer township fire chief Manly Bennett, served. They had been leasing it from the township at no charge, since 2010. Before that, Bennett and the other beavers worked out of his garage.

What started with little wooden race cars grew to around 100 patterns, including about any kind of animal, as well as all sorts of people, vehicles and virtually anything else you can imagine. Sometimes, hospitals make special requests for new shapes. Volunteers were working on Christmas and winter-themed toys, like reindeer and snowman, which Bennett said make good tree ornaments.

Bennett was formally recognized for making sick kids across the country smile at the Governor’s Service Award ceremony held in June at Frederik Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids. He modestly admitted he was one of five finalists out of 160 nominated volunteers from across Michigan.

Hamburg gives old fire hall to Bennett’s Beavers

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abby Welsh, Livingston Daily 10:47 p.m. EST January 24, 2015

Jim Bennett was speechless when Hamburg Township officials told him they would be giving him the old fire hall on Stone Street.

“My goodness, I fell off my chair,” Bennett said, laughing. “It took all of the worry away, and it was just such a wonderful feeling.”

Bennett is president of Bennett’s Beavers, a nonprofit organization whose volunteers make wood cutouts for children to color in playrooms at hospitals. The group had been using the vacant facility for four years through a no-cost leasing agreement.

Bennett approached township officials about “some kind of contract” for ownership of the building and was told they would think it over.

Township trustees called Bennett in and asked him, “What if we just gave you the building?”

“He has been using it for years now, and we thought, why not?” said Pat Hohl, township supervisor.

When Bennett started leasing the building, remodeling and renovation work was done with help from donations, grants and volunteers. Last year, the group gave it a fresh coat of paint.

“We did a lot to it, so we currently don’t have anything left to do except move into the facility permanently,” Bennett said. “It’s just a blessing and great feeling to know it is ours.”

Bennett’s Beavers started with two volunteers. It now has 25, all of whom were as shocked as Bennett when they learned the good news.

“They didn’t believe me when I first told them,” Bennett said. “I actually asked if some Hamburg Township officials were able to come in during our workday and hand over the paperwork in front of all the volunteers.”

Bennett officially received the deed to the building during a recent township board meeting.

“It’s just a great feeling, and now we can continue our line of work,” he said. “I anticipate this organization going on its way after I’m gone, so this is a huge help.”

Starting small

Bennett’s Beavers worked out of Bennett’s garage for nearly 16 years before moving into the fire hall.

Bennett’s sister was working at a hospital as a “baby hugger,” a volunteer who holds and calms crying babies. One of the child-life therapists at the hospital made wood cutouts for children to paint and was asking for more help.

When his sister asked if he could help, Bennett jumped at the opportunity.

“That’s how it all started,” he said. “At first, I made little cars, and then my wife had found some old coloring books from when our kids were younger and suggested I start making farm animals, so I did.”

At first, Bennett’s Beavers distributed cutouts to five hospital playrooms, and it now reaches nearly 27 in Michigan and Ohio. Last year, Bennett said, the group distributed 51,768 cutouts.

Most hospitals learn about the group through word-of-mouth.

“The only cost the hospital pays for is the shipping,” he said. “Everything else is free.”

During the summer months, the volunteers gather and work two days a week. They cut back to one day during the winter.

“We have some snowbirds, so we do most of our inventory during the summer,” Bennett said.

“You don’t often find people with this much gratitude, and it’s just so wonderful for us to have this opportunity,” he said. “We are very thankful for the Hamburg Township officials.”

Article from the Tuesday September 14, 2010 issue of the Livingston Press & Argus

Carving and caring

By Frank Konkel
DAILY PRESS & ARGUS

The 20 or so volunteers whomake up Bennett’s Beavers inHamburg Township don’t work for wages, benefits or favors. The group churns out more than 20,000 wooden toys each year for hospitalized children across the country to color and decorate. Yet, if you ask any of them about the work they do, they’ll echo the sentiments of Bud Kingsbury, who’s been a Beaver for two years. “The pay is wonderful,” said Kingsbury, 79. “We love what we do, and we know we’re helping children. They make it all worthwhile.” Every Tuesday, the whole crew gathers from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. to continue the efforts first undertaken by Hamburg Township resident Jim Bennett nearly 15 years ago.

At the time, Jim Bennett’s sister volunteered at the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor taking care of young children, and asked him to make some wooden toys for her patients to paint and play with.

What started as one man shaping wood in his garage for children in one hospital has transformed into many men carving a piece of happiness for children in 13 hospitals across the country. On Saturday, Bennett’s Beavers celebrated an expansion and continuation of their operation, officially moving from Jim Bennett’s garage to the former Hamburg Township Fire Department station on Stone Street. In return for the building’s upkeep and electric bills, the 501(c)3 nonprofit organization will have a base of operations for the foreseeable future for an otherwise free rent, so long as it remains a nonprofit. Jim Bennett first approached the township about the idea back in January, and the township, he said, was nothing but cooperative. “I had all this activity in my own shop, and I began to worry about what might happen with the program when I’m no longer available,” he said. “We’ve come to do a lot here, and the reason we had a ceremony was to thank the township for giving us a place to continue doing what we do.”

 Photo by GILLIS BENEDICT/DAILY PRESS & ARGUS

Tom Hendricks, a volunteer with Hamburg Township-based Bennett’s Beavers, cuts out wooden toy shapes on a jigsaw. The group churns out more than 20,000 wooden toys each year for hospitalized children across the country to color and decorate, and recently celebrated an expansion and continuation of its operation, officially moving from Jim Bennett’s garage to the former Hamburg Township Fire Department station on Stone Street. “I had all this activity in my own shop, and I began to worry about what might happen with the program when I’m no longer available,” Bennett said. 

 Toymaking nonprofit gets new, bigger home

What the members of Bennett’s Beavers are able to do is nothing short of amazing, at least according to hospital officials who routinely watch kids’ eyes light up as they’re presented new toys. Dan Fischer, director of the Child and Family Life Department at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, said the toys produced by Bennett’s Beavers benefit children significantly. The hospital — a Level-1 trauma center — sees stays among its children ranging from “a few days” to up to one year. Toys, he said, often serve to brighten the days of these youth. “Bennett’s Beavers has provided us thousands of woodcrafts we use in activity rooms and special events for children and families,” Fischer said. “They’ve had an effect on thousands of patients and families who’ve benefited. For many of our children, the toys provide a distraction from being in a hospital and an opportunity to feel somewhat normal. They’re made available to patients of any age and any disability.” The group expects to produce up to 30,000 wooden toys this year, and the nonprofit is able to do so because the volunteers work in assembly-line fashion. Two men stamp wood donated by Doors & Drawers in Dexter and Comins Lumber Sales Inc. in Comins, a small town 35 miles northeast of Grayling. The stampers cut the lengthy pieces of wood into smaller, manageable segments, which the six to eight scroll-saw operators can easily handle. Larry Rowland, who has worked with Jim Bennett for more than 14 years, said his crews sometime cut hundreds of different kinds of shapes each day. They’ve never had so much as one serious injury, despite logging hundreds, if not thousands, of hours on what can be dangerous machines. “We do what needs to get done,” Rowland said. Once the pieces are cut, they’re passed to two sanders, who smooth out and refine the edges. Then, someone tabulates and organizes the day’s quota and updates the product list. The finished toys are either shipped or delivered to hospitals as far south as St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., and as far west as John C. Lincoln Deer Valley Hospital in Phoenix. “What they provide is a tremendous service,” Fischer said. “My staff and I have the utmost gratitude and respect for the work they do.” Secretary Marilyn Bennett and Treasurer Dolores Haw also work hard to ensure Bennett’s Beavers’ daily operations are carried out without hiccups. They handle the group’s funding, which comes via taxdeductible donations from its annual golf outing, and through its recent foray into charity poker tournaments in Ann Arbor. Bennett’s Beavers, once a oneman operation, is now a community affair. Local businesses, volunteers and now the township have come together, Jim Bennett said, for the greater good. At 75, Jim Bennett no longer has to worry about the future of Bennett’s Beavers, or the thousands of children the organization has helped make smile over the years.

 

Joe Marhofer sands down the surfaces of wooden toys made by the band of volunteers called Bennett’s Beavers. The finished toys are either shipped or delivered to hospitals as far south as St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., and as far west as John C. Lincoln Deer Valley Hospital in Phoenix.