WAWM "Work at Play" Project at the Attleboro Expo for the Senses

On Saturday, June 25th, the Women at Work Museum sponsored a "Work at Play" Project for children and adults at Attleboro's 3rd annual Expo for the Senses.

Inspired by a BBC television show, James May Toy Stories, the Women at Work Museum wanted to try something big and fun and different for this year’s Expo for the Senses. “I wanted an idea that would allow children and adults to build and explore creatively, but in a big way,” explained Museum Board Member Kelly Fox.  “The TV show is mostly about adults building large scale projects out of Legos or Erector sets, but I wanted children and families to become the designers and engineers and to see the project come to life!”  The original idea was to make a sculpture that would go down the hill from the center of the city to the Museum, but due to safety concerns and traffic flow, the project was held under the arch instead. 

The toy that was chosen for the project are called Toobers and Zots^®.  These flexile, moldable soft foam toys for children 3 and up were originally popular in the mid-1990’s but have been sporadically available since.  The Museum’s volunteers loved the idea of the toy for the project, but soon realized that finding enough of them to bring the idea to fruition was going to be a challenge.  After having no luck finding donations through Freecycle and minimal product being available through on-line sources, a facebook post asking for help immediately pointed the volunteers to the new manufacturer of the toy:  Little Kids, Inc in Seekonk.  “Seekonk?”  Fox said of the discovery.  “We were shocked.  How lucky could we get that the company we’d been searching for was a few minutes away!  The only way this could be better was if they were willing to partner with us and help bring the project to life.” 

Luckily for the Museum, the folks at Little Kids were only too happy to help out.  They brought Spike the Dragon with them as well as hundreds of pieces of the foam toy for children to play with and to help create a community sculpture out of the pieces.  Little Kids’ brand manager for Toobers and Zots, Megan McCourt, has worked closely with the volunteers to help bring the project together.  “We have found that children love the open-ended play, to build one of a kind creatures, flowers, rocket ships… anything they can imagine!” McCourt explained, “and we’re very excited to be able to work with the Museum as the product is relaunched after a long time off the market.” 

All profits generated from the event were generously donated by Little Kids, Inc. to the Women at Work Museum.