A wooden-puppet theater stand, shelves stocked with puzzle sets, doll houses and more fill the new location of the Finger Lakes Toy Library at the Shops of Ithaca Mall.
“I tell people, it’s like a book library, but with toys so you come in, you can borrow toys for four weeks and then you bring them back,” said Finger Lakes Toy Library’s interim director of operations Kelly Sauve .
The Toy Library’s History
The Toy Library is a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing wellbeing by extending access to toys, encouraging playtime, and fostering a culture of reuse and sharing.
The Toy Library, which allows children to borrow and play with toys, was established in 2016 by Sauve and board president Debra Lewis. .
“I got involved just because I thought it was a really cool concept,” said Sauve. “I was actually pretty skeptical that it was even going to work: like who’s gonna take care of toys and return them…. and, just my kids were hooked, and so I’ve been involved on the board and as the interim director for the last four to five years.”
The Toy Library promotes two core principles of sharing and reuse while also ensuring equitable access to toys.
The current system offers membership to families, caregivers, and organizations that work with children in Ithaca and the surrounding region.
Maddy Dolkart, a board member and volunteer, spoke about the importance of having the Toy Library in the community.
“It’s perfect,” said Dolkart. “Especially, I’m just thinking of puzzles… people just outgrow their puzzles, I’m thinking of the littles ones; so you can just borrow one and come back and return it. The whole idea of borrowing and not having to buy all the toys is really great.”
The Shutdown
The Toy Library was forced to shutdown due to COVID-19 back in March of 2020 until reopening for curbside pickup in June of the same year following community support.
“It was just really touch and go for months until we learned how this was being transmitted and we knew that the risk of surface transmission was low,” Sauve said. “Once we kind of had that information, we were able to open it for curbside pickup.”
The curbside collection option was also implemented following the outreach to community members.
“We did a lot of just surveying our members and seeing what their risk tolerance level was, and when we knew they were comfortable,” Sauve added. “We’re already cleaning our toys and so there’s already some, I think, trust in the community that we take good care of our toys and clean them.”
Despite the challenges of adjusting to the new format, Dolkart was pleased with the results.
“I still managed to come in once a week and process the toys that were being dropped off the curbside and it worked out very well, ” Dolkart said. “We had a really good system going on.”
The Toy Library officially reopened to the public on Wednesday, Oct. 13 at the Shops of Ithaca Mall.
Building a New Home
The renovations at the Toy Library’s old home in Clinton West Plaza prompted the board members to explore for a new location in August, something they had already pondered after outgrowing its Plaza building.
“We had actually been thinking for some time about trying to find a new space, trying to find a bigger space where we could better serve all of our members… we were really searching to try and find the best perfect location that we could,” said Sauve.
As of now, the Toy Library is not holding in-person events but it is allowing the public to come in to play and check out toys. However, safety guidelines will remain in place with a 20-person limit for the storefront as well as mask requirements for individuals above two years old.
Sauve expressed excitement when discussing the new opportunities that have arisen as a result of the shift to a larger facility at Ithaca Mall.
“We’re really excited about a place for older kids to play games, play puzzles, while they’re here. We’re excited about the larger amount of space, we can expand our collection,” Sauve said. “We’ve kind of been primarily focused on the age zero to five so now we’ll be able to expand more of our, like 10 plus offerings, as well as including toys for kids with special needs.”
