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These wooden toys were made by Felix Rosado and volunteers for children in need. (Credit: WJBK | myFOXDetroit.com)
Felix Rosado Making Wooden Toys for Kids in Need
Updated: Tuesday, 21 Dec 2010, 7:16 PM EST
Published : Tuesday, 21 Dec 2010, 7:14 PM EST
By AMY LANGE
WJBK | myFOXDetroit.com
DETROIT (WJBK) - So many children are in need this holiday season. Many would go without a Christmas gift if it wasn't for Toys for Tots. That's why a local man is making 100 wooden toys for Detroit children. It's a mission he started while he was serving time behind bars.
People are hard at work on Detroit's southwest side crafting toys for tots. It's the brainchild of 50-year-old Felix Rosado, a former gang banger that spent eight years in federal prison for conspiracy.
"I (have) five kids, and during the time I was in prison, I thought about them, but I couldn't do (anything) for them," said Rosado.
However, he could do something for other children, so he started working in the prison wood shop making toys -- 7,000 of them while behind bars.
Released for good behavior, Rosado's now working in the Weatherization Specialist Training Program through Southwest Solutions. He took a look at all the scrap wood in the shop and knew what he wanted to do.
"Felix said, 'I'm going to make toys.' And I said, well, we may as well embrace it and help him do that," said Chris Rutherford with the Weatherization Training Program.
"Just turning his life around like this, it's just a pleasure to see that," said Doug Hill, Rosado's former counselor.
In all, Rosado and the other volunteers are making 100 toys.
"I can feel it now. I'm so emotional now that I can feel it," Rosado said. "I know once these kids get these toys … I know they'll be happy, and if they're happy, I know I can feel happy. It's like giving back to society."
He is seeking redemption and finding it in woodwork in Santa's workshop.
"The way I was in the past, I did a lot of damage, so I'm trying to make up for society now," said Rosado.
He is hoping to make toys year round for children in area homeless shelters.
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The Weatherization Training Program is part of the Southwest Solutions workforce development program called Detroit GreenWorks Solutions: It's a partnership with WARM Training. The federally-funded program targets unemployed and underemployed southwest Detroit residents to train and then place them in "green jobs." About 40 agencies around the country received workforce development grants in 2010 as part of "Pathways Out of Poverty."
