Art Whitfield, Toy Doctor Extraordinaire

So I have mentioned one of the Toy Resource Center's volunteers, Joyce. She comes in once a week and helps me out with getting the toys back on the shelf after being returned. BUT she also has this fantastic knowledge of early education, play and learning so she helps out parents, providers and teachers who come in. There is another person who helps out here tremendously. His name is Art Whitfield and we call him the Toy Doctor. I could now mention the countless other places he volunteers his time and skills and how awesome he is, but, I think that may make him blush.

He has made a visitor site for the toy library which soon, we will probably put to better use, especially because it is coming up on the 25th anniversary of the Rochester Toy Library (10 years as Toy Resource Center this month at Lincoln!) Here is the link: Friends of Rochester Toy Library

He also blogs about all sorts of smart stuff like lightning, music and general technology. Here is his blog: WindWorks Design.

One more plug, courtesy of Art who also has this video posted. Dave Eggers did a talk on engaging children and teens within tutoring centers. This kinda touched my heart a little bit, since I work with the same age group:

"Some of these kids just don't plain know how good they are, how smart and how much they have to say. You can tell them." 

By the way, I'm addicted to TED now, thanks Art!