Men's shed volunteers craft simple gifts to make young hearts skip with joy
Wagga Wagga Men's Shed has made more than 500 skipping ropes for children in poverty. (ABC Riverina: Jess Scully )
Each time John Mason starts up the wood lathe at his local men's shed, the former farmer has one goal in mind — a perfectly shaped piece of wood to add to the hundreds before it.
He and other members of the Wagga Wagga Men's Shed have been lovingly turning these blocks into skipping rope handles for children they will never meet, all over the world.
"I can't say that I've got a word that expresses it, actually" Mr Mason said.
"It would be wonderful to see the look on their face — It must be wonderful."
John Mason has turned his hand to the wood lathe. (ABC Riverina: Jess Scully)
So far this year, the team has crafted more than 500 handles for skipping ropes that are packed into gift boxes for children in need at Christmas.
"It's a universal toy — so simple," Mr Mason said
Operation Christmas Child, organised by Samaritan's Purse, a not-for-profit organisation that offers relief and assistance to people in need.
It partners Christian churches to distribute gift boxes, which in previous years have been sent to children in Ukraine, the Philippines, and Cambodia.
Each box contains stationery, hygiene items, clothes and toys.
Wagga men's shed has been making the skipping rope handles for three years, since an approach by local Lionel Stewart.
"Lionel came to us and asked for a few skipping rope handles," Mr Stewart said.
"I might be getting towards 600 now. I even made one this afternoon."
Mr Stewart takes the freshly turned handles back to his home in Lake Albert, adds coats of gloss and fastens rope to make the finished product.
Lionel Stewart approached the men's shed a few years ago to make a "couple" of handles. (ABC Riverina: Jess Scully)
He said it was a rewarding process, all the more so when he saw footage of the end results.
"You see films of the little kids opening their Christmas boxes and their faces light up" he said.
"That's what the men here like about it, doing it for these little kids."
He said the men's shed made turning hundreds of skipping rope handles look easy.
"Incredible — it seems no effort for these fellas to make [them]," he said.
Mr Stewart said organisations like men's shed created meaningful change in the community.
"You learn from other men, not only in the wood making and what they've done," he said.
"They sit down and tell yarns — some of them not very true — but they still talk about what's happened in their life."
Operation Christmas Child boxes go to children in poverty and strife all over the world. (ABC Riverina: Jess Scully)
South Wagga Anglican Church project coordinator Catherine Harvie said local churches were the drop-off locations and received about 1,000 boxes each October from the surrounding community.
She said the efforts of locals like Mr Stewart and the men's shed team was "top notch".
"The men here are making a quality item that is usable, will last a long time and will bring joy to children," she said.
"Often these kids living in poverty have never received a gift before, so we want to give a quality gift."
Catherine Harvie says the box is the first gift many of the children have ever received. (ABC Riverina: Jess Scully)
Ms Harvie said the goal of the gift boxes was to bring happiness to children, rather than spreading gospel.
"If they want to hear about Jesus, then we share," she said.
"But if they don't, then we just give out gifts and we bring joy to the children and sit with them in their space."
Ms Harvie travelled to Uganda in 2012 to give the boxes to children and said the experience was "overwhelming".
"These boxes start with packing a few special things, [but] the impact is far greater than we could ever imagine," she said.