Louise Sheather has lined the walls of a quaint church hall in a quiet corner of central west NSW with shelves of toys.<\/p>\n
It is a world away from the bustle of Sydney’s CBD, but the former retail guru can draw a line between the two.<\/p>\n
“I was a management trainee at David Jones in the 70s and I got a toy department to manage,” Ms Sheather said.<\/p>\n
“It was so successful it ended up taking about a third of the floor in Barrack Street.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Clever software and stocktakes mean the volunteer-run Blayney Toy Library works like a retail store. (ABC Central West: Micaela Hambrett)<\/p>\n
Ms Sheather said the toys had to be rolled down in shopping trolleys from the main Elizabeth Street store to meet demand, as the seasonal pop-up department grew to include toy company representatives giving live demonstrations and a gift-wrapping team.<\/p>\n
“I walked around helping people telling them, you know, ‘At this age, this is fantastic,'” she said.<\/p>\n
“But what really rocked my boat was that every single child that got a toy knew it was going to work on Christmas Day.”<\/p>\n
Ms Sheather said that was because “every single toy was tested”.<\/p>\n
“If it had batteries, every single toy was sold with batteries separated out in the box,” she said.<\/p>\n
Savings for families<\/p>\n
Four decades on, Ms Sheather is happy applying her vast retail and marketing insight to the tiny Blayney Toy Library.<\/p>\n
Once again, her approach to her customers has yielded results.<\/p>\n
“We love her,” said Orange mum Kayla Melton.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kayla Melton drives the hour-long round trip to Blayney because the toy library is so helpful. (ABC Central West: Micaela Hambrett)<\/p>\n
“I don’t know if we’d be there without her.<\/p>\n
“She’s like family \u2014 she just wants the best for your child.<\/p>\n
“There have been toys there that Louise has suggested, and I’m like, ‘Oh, no’. but they end up being [my daughter’s] favourite toys.”<\/p>\n
Ms Melton said for $80 a year, her toy library membership had saved her “thousands” during a cost-of-living crisis.<\/p>\n
“That’s the price of two toys,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We’re borrowing six toys every fortnight.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Blayney Toy Library occupies a church hall on the main street. (ABC Central West: Micaela Hambrett)<\/p>\n
Rallying community support<\/p>\n
When she was just 10 years old, Ms Sheather donated a doll to a little girl with impaired vision.<\/p>\n
It was a moment she will never forget.<\/p>\n
“She just stood there and she felt all over it and just cried with sheer happiness,” Ms Sheather said.<\/p>\n
“It was so moving. It still moves me.”<\/p>\n
Ms Sheather spent a year convincing the Rotary Club of Blayney to get behind the library idea.<\/p>\n
“I think they thought it’d be a bunch of screaming kids but they realised it was great for the community,” she said<\/p>\n
It took her a month to upload the almost 600 items into a sophisticated software system that allows their usage to be monitored.<\/p>\n
Every single toy part is numbered by hand and regular stocktakes mean unpopular toys are periodically sold to raise money for new acquisitions.<\/p>\n
Loading…<\/p>\n
Ms Sheather said the meticulous work had given her a focus.<\/p>\n
“I have an ill brother, and my best friend of 46 years died this year,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It’s probably been the toughest year of my life.<\/p>\n
“Being able to bring a bit of joy has been a really nice thing.”Child development<\/p>\n
In August, the library hosted speech and occupational therapists who provided free advice to families on the role of toys in childhood, especially for children experiencing developmental delays.<\/p>\n
“We want therapists to recommend toys and then send families down here and say, ‘You don’t have to buy this expensive thing \u2014 your child is only going to need it for six weeks,'” Ms Sheather said<\/p>\n
“Their brains are growing so quickly, they need constant stimulation.”<\/p>\n
Toy Libraries Australia (TLA) project officer Adelle Suitor said the benefits of temporary toys went far beyond saving money.<\/p>\n
“113 million toys end up in landfill after one year, which is crazy,” she said.<\/p>\n
“But it is the social connection as well.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Louise Sheather has lined the walls of a quaint church hall in a quiet corner of central west…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,165750,99,165748,101986,22943,165746,165745,165749,165747],"class_list":{"0":"post-287367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-blayney-toy-library","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-david-jones","13":"tag-retailer","14":"tag-sustainable","15":"tag-toy","16":"tag-toy-library","17":"tag-toy-story","18":"tag-tree-change"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}