Toy library’s growth continues

SURF Coast Toy Library membership numbers are at an all time high with committee members excited about the library’s future.

Surf Coast Toy Library committee member and secretary Rebecca Sonnex said the Toy Library has experienced an increase in memberships for the past four years and was finding new ways to accommodate for the library’s expansion.

“I’ve only been on the committee for the past six months, but we’re now over 260 members, which is pretty amazing,” Ms Sonnex said.

“From my knowledge, prior to COVID-19, we were only around the 100 mark, so we’ve almost tripled in size over the past four years or so.

“We have maintained a steady uptake in membership in that time but leading up to Christmas we have been incredibly busy.

“We’ve actually had to secure storage offsite to help accommodate storage for our toys, which goes to show that space is at a premium, and we’re continuing to work with the Surf Coast Shire on that.”

In the past year, the Surf Coast Toy Library, located at the Children’s Service Hub at 27 Grossmans Road, Torquay, loaned $170,000 worth of toys to families.

On average, the library welcomes between 20 and 30 families each session, with each family loaning between four and six toys at a time. Transactions over the past year have totalled more than 2,380.

Members are able to purchase three, six, 12 month memberships for either a single child (four toy limit) or a family (six toy limit).

More than 130,000 Australian families use the 280 toy libraries across the country each year to save money.

“Of course none of what we do at the toy library is possible without our dedicated volunteers, we have a committee of about 11 at the moment.

“We can’t do it without their support, it is a struggle at times, we need at least three volunteers on hand to open the library.

“It is a fantastic feeling, knowing we’re gaining in popularity, which is awesome, but it’s also a challenge to keep up with the demand and having enough volunteers.”

The library is open Saturdays, 9am-11am, every second Friday 2pm-4pm, and on the first Tuesday every month 9.30am-11am.

For more information on the Surf Coast Toy Library, head to surfcoasttoylibrary.com.au