Staff Writer
Santa’s Sleigh Project — a United Way of Aroostook program that puts toys in the hands of less fortunate children each Christmas — got help again this year from a local couple whose past donations have put smiles on the faces of dozens of children in years past.
For over four years, Phyllis and Leonard Hutchins of West Chapman have devoted much of their free time to making a variety of toys for good little girls and boys.
SANTA’S HELPERS — Phyllis and Leonard Hutchins, of West Chapman, have devoted many years to helping those less fortunate have a merry Christmas — particularly the children of Aroostook County. Each year the couple make handcrafted toys, from trucks to cribs and doll high chairs, which they then donate to the United Way of Aroostook for distribution to children throughout Aroostook County. Here the Hutchins are pictured delivering their creations to the UWA office in Presque Isle.
“The first year I had a couple cribs. It’s grown since then to include high chairs and toy vehicles,” said Leonard Hutchins.
Despite physical limitations, Phyllis Hutchins has added her skills over the years, making blankets, gift bags and other items to add to her husband’s creations with all items destined for the UWA.
“At age 82 — pushing 83 — confined mostly to a wheelchair, one eye legally blind and the other very dim, I am a very lucky old woman because I am not at all useless and I have a project,” said Phyllis Hutchins.
She credited family for teaching her the importance of giving, noting how the Depression taught many of her generation that helping others was the greatest gift of all.
“Perhaps my brother, Herbert, planted the seed for my project during the Great Depression winter evenings, as I remember him sitting in an upstairs room near a warm chimney, beside a table and a kerosene lamp, after the day’s farm chores were done as he whittled and whittled, making gifts for us. He made a pencil box for me. In my family of eight children, that meant I had something of my very own. I prized that pencil box, but over the years I lost both my brother and the box,” said Phyllis Hutchins.
Since that time, she said she grew up, married and had her own children.
“My husband, Leonard, made toy trucks and doll cribs and I loved the joy of painting toys and making doll clothes and crib sheets, blankets and pillows and I remembered my pencil box,” she said. “Our next generation yielded all boys, but it was fun to paint toy trucks and cars for them. We still have a shelf full of those toys, although I wish I had my pencil box to add to the collection.”
When the couple retired, they found they had time to make lots of toys.
“But it’s a long time between generations when there are no little ones around and over those years we acquired a nagging useless feeling. On the other hand, we thought that the United Way of Aroostook’s Santa’s Sleigh Project was an application of genius and although we bought toys and contributed year after year, it wasn’t as much fun as making the toys ourselves,” Phyllis Hutchins said.
She said sometimes it takes a long, long time for the obvious to become an idea.
“Finally we wondered if the United Way could or would use homemade toys. These toys would not be as smooth and shiny as store-bought things – but they would be homemade and we could furnish more of them than we could buy for the program. We decided to take our chances, make something and ask, so Leonard made two doll cribs and again I lived the joy of painting and sewing doll things, all the while wondering if our work would be acceptable,” said Phyllis Hutchins.
“It gets us up in the morning and gives us something to do,” noted Leonard Hutchins. “When you get retired, you begin to wonder if you’ve done it all. Our writing touched adults; this gets a different audience.”
Phyllis Hutchins said their apprehension was rewarded when the ladies at the UWA had places for their work and several hundred more pieces in the years to come.
“That number’s not exaggerated. I thought ‘Wow, I have my project.’ Leonard and I listened to suggestions, looked again at the toys our children and grandchildren used and then designed a line of toys to meet the UWA’s needs — cribs, high chairs, teddy bear chairs (rockers work well on teddy-bear chairs), pickups, trucks and tractors with trailers. The UWA has places for them all,” she said.
She said she gets the most pleasure working on doll items.
“My favorite job for the project is tacking a doll crib-sized blanket, which is something every old woman should do. And by the way, we have a 90-year-old friend who embroiders doll crib blankets for the project and they are beautiful,” said Phyllis Hutchins.
The Hutchins’ generosity isn’t limited to bringing Christmas cheer to children in need. Phyllis Hutchins also works with a local branch of a national organization in an effort to comfort children across the country.
“Sometimes the obvious eludes becoming an idea and even then it needs help. Leonard saw an item on television about many Houlton women making ‘Linus’ blankets, which are child-sized blankets. ‘Why,’ we wondered, ‘would so many ladies in Houlton all make the same item?’ Then Leonard checked the Linus Program on his computer and found that the program is international,” she said.
Recalling that their friends at UWA needed several hundred items just for Aroostook County and that Linus in the “Peanuts” comic strip needed his blanket for security, she and her husband began to wonder how many kids need that security.
“At that point, my project became bigger than me. So I joined the Houlton ladies, along with a lot of others who make the Linus blankets. But I still make the crib blankets too, of course, and my friends at the UWA and in Marden’s fabric corner, which is the local Linus blanket place, are there to help,” said Phyllis Hutchins.
WAITING FOR SANTA — Brightly colored toys, lovingly handcrafted by Phyllis and Leonard Hutchins of West Chapman, await pickup at the United Way of Aroostook. The couple give Santa a hand each year, making a variety of playthings for both girls and boys, with the UWA assisting the Jolly Old Elf with distribution throughout The County in time for Christmas.
