Toledo Repair Café

News: Toledo Repair Café and Children’s Wonderland

Since 1963, families from all over Northwest Ohio have been coming to find the holiday spirit at Children’s Wonderland. Grandparents are now enjoying
enchanting displays with their grandchildren that they remember enjoying as youngsters back in the 60’s. After 60 years of entertaining children of all ages,
over sixty animated figures were malfunctioning and in need of repairs. Present Children’s Wonderland organizer, the Sylvania Recreation District, needed to find people who were able to make repairs on the damaged electro-mechanical figures. Connecting with the Toledo Repair Café, Julie Emerine, Special Events manager at  Sylvania Recreation, friends Joe Stechschulte, and Children’s Wonderland volunteer C.J. Smith, service to restore as many of these antique figures as possible was begun.

Over a 5 month period, the Toledo Repair Café Electro-Mechanical volunteers looked at over sixty hand-made animated figures that had malfunctioned. Because of the age of the figures and the lack of replacement parts available for repairs, only about 65% could be brought back to life. Lubrication and mechanical adjustments worked their magic on many figures. Others needed electrical servicing to bring them back into action. Those that could not be restored needed structural repairs that the Toledo Repair Café could not provide.

The Sylvania Recreation Corp expressed its deep appreciation for the free services of the volunteers of the TRC for their efforts in restoring these historic characters for present and future generations.