Work Builders – Dad's Blog

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here and lots has happened. This last summer our family relocated from upstate NY to Knoxville TN and along with us comes Ryan’s Work Builders business. With all of the activity that surrounds moving to a new home, adjusting to a new school and finding new friends, thoughts of his Easy Builder building block business have been a little secondary but he’s still managed to fill an order here and there. His little brother Collin is excited to step in and help now too.

Today was a short school day for Ryan and that opened the door for us to find our way to a local bank where he set up a new savings account. One more step in the transition from NY to TN! After a little research online looking at banks he chose one close by that offers a “Looney Tunes” account for kids. Every so often he’ll get a newsletter just for kids and they gave him his own Piggy Bank just for opening the account.

Over the last few weeks Ryan’s been keenly focused on some new ideas, big ideas. The biggest hurdle he’ll have to overcome is cost, so he’s been churning our plans to overcome that left and right. The coming weeks and months could get a bit interesting, we’ll see.

Last night Ryan visited the executive offices of SOS Shelter and donated 65 sets of his Easy Builder building blocks for their use. Ryan was greeted by five members of the SOS Shelter board and staff. It was a happy visit and fun for Ryan to complete his goals of distributing toys for the holidays again this year.

These 65 sets of building blocks were the result of Ryan’s second Work Builders Block Party and the help of 175 volunteers who attended this year. Roughly two weeks ago Ryan also donated a similar number of building block sets to Toys for Tots. His donation to Toys for Tots happened at his elementary school with all of his second grade classmates there to see.

If you would like to support Ryan’s efforts to help charity, your tax deductible donations will support the Work Builders Block Party! Get all the info here!

During the Work Builders Block Party of 2009 Ryan came to me at one point and said, “Daddy, I want to do this again next week!” Well, we didn’t do it the following week, but we ARE doing it again in the following year.

Announcing the Work Builders Block Party 2010!

The Work Builders Block Party is a community volunteer project and YOU are invited. Our project is to make as many sets of Easy Builder building blocks as we can in one day. Then ALL of them are donated to local charity.

Once again this year Ryan has decided to support Toys for Tots and SOS Shelter with the building block sets we make. Last year we were able to donate 51 sets of kids building blocks to each of those charity organizations. This year we hope to do even more with your help.

Here are the details:

What: Work Builders Block Party
Where: Binghamton University, Fine Arts Building, room FA212
When: Sunday November 14, 2010 10am-3pm
Who: EVERYONE is welcome!
How: You can sign up online RIGHT NOW!

We hope you will come and help us make some happy holidays for children who need it. Come when you can, you don’t have to be there start to finish. If you can make it for an hour or a few hours we will be glad to have your help!

I hope we will see you there! Mark your calendar for Sunday November 14!

Part of the fun in this business for Ryan and I has been to watch where his Easy Builder building block sets actually go. A while back I added a fun map to his website which shows just that, the destinations to which he has shipped the block sets.

Naturally, most of his orders have been right here in the central New York area. But as you can see his orders have shipped nationwide, and not just to family either!

People have had fun showing us how much they are enjoying the block sets too. So far we have seen some photos of children enjoying the building blocks and even spotted a YouTube video of some kids opening up their Easy Builder building block sets on Christmas morning! I am not sure who had more fun, the kids opening their presents or Ryan watching them do it on YouTube!

If you would like to share your experience with Easy Builder building blocks with us please do. Send Ryan an email and let us know how the blocks are being enjoyed. We love seeing the pictures!

After saving for the last few months, Ryan’s hard earned profits had grown to the point where it seemed time to make his donation to United Way of Broome County. So, yesterday I picked him up from school and we headed over to the United Way offices here in Vestal, NY to do just that. Ryan had decided on his own long ago that he would give a full 50% of his Work Builders profits to United Way. This was his first chance to put that plan into action.

Last week I contacted United Way to let them know Ryan wanted to make his donation. They were already aware of his charitable activities supporting Toys for Tots and SOS Shelter as well as his intentions for supporting United Way once his profits accumulated. In fact they have been very supportive of everything Ryan has been doing helping to spread the word and even buying some of his blocks.

When we arrived there were already two TV camera crews there and two more would come shortly thereafter. There was also a reporter from the local newspaper who had come for the story. They took a little time to interview Ryan as best you can with a six-year-old and he shared a bit about the day’s donation and how he had raised the funds. At one point Ryan was surrounded by four TV cameras and a photographer. That was without counting me. I did come prepared with camera in hand and took a few photos of my own! Ryan seemed to take it all in stride. I was able to find the news report done by News 10 Now online. You can view the video here.

Next Ryan got to meet Mr. Alan Hertel, Executive Director of United Way of Broome County, who was looking forward to meeting Ryan and would personally accept his donation. Mr. Hertel waited patiently as did the room full of news crews as Ryan carefully counted out the money he had brought to donate, $60.00 in all. Ryan then gave his donation to Mr. Hertel and in return received a receipt for his records. I’ll talk with him more about that later. Mr. Hertel talked with Ryan a bit about how his donation helps United Way and some of the things United Way does for our community. Before he was done, Mr. Hertel also bought a set of blocks from Ryan. A nice surprise that added to the fun.

When Ryan left the United Way offices he had a smaller stash of money in his shiny money box, but I do believe he had a bigger smile than the one he arrived with. He really enjoyed making his donation and I enjoyed watching him.

Up until now any money Ryan has managed to accumulate from his Work Builders business or the catalyst Lemonade Stand he and his brother ran last summer, has been kept in a shiny “money box”, a very nice jewelry box his mother gave him. After discussing it off and on over recent weeks, Ryan and I headed off to the bank so he could open up his very own savings account!

With his money box in hand Ryan was excited to head into the bank. Given his choice of what bank he would like to use, he chose the bank closest to our house so that “we can get there fast if we need to”. As we walked into the bank he also commented he was glad to finally see what the inside of this bank looks like. We drive past it all the time.

Once inside we waited a few minutes and were then helped by a nice lady named Gigi. She explained the details of the “Starter” savings account which Ryan would have and we took care of the paperwork. After considering his options carefully, Ryan decided that an initial deposit of $10.00 would be good and so it was.

So now with his savings account in place, Ryan likes that his money will “grow” in the bank. Hopefully he won’t be too disappointed when he sees what that really means with a small deposit and frighteningly low interest rate. But he is learning some lessons about how to handle money and that is a good thing. Plus it counts as an achievement for him as a Cub Scout too, so he’s got that going for him…

As we exited the bank Ryan’s naturally inquisitive nature drew him to the impressive large metal vault door. Unwilling to leave without at least a rudimentary understanding of what that was and how it worked, his curiosity was satisfied by another helpful bank employee who offered him a quick look inside and brief description.

All in all a good learning experience for Ryan. Now he knows where to keep his money safe!

If I have had to do anything proactive throughout the process of assisting Ryan as he has started up his Work Builders company and building block business, it has been to keep the reigns pulled in a bit. You see, building blocks are not his vision for Work Builders. Not by a long shot.

The trick so far has been to keep him focused on a product simple enough that we can reasonably make it by hand, with a somewhat sketchy selection of tools to work with. His plans for product offerings are extensive and in some cases rather involved. But here is one we may be able to work on without too much in the way of retooling, or breaking the bank.

Ryan’s brother Collin has a birthday on January 5. This year he turned 4 years old and boy was he looking forward to that! You see, when you are four years old “everything’s fun!” as he puts it. In any case, Ryan decided to make a present for Collin’s birthday and that is what you see pictured here. Ryan’s bus. Some time ago Ryan had been playing around with some building blocks one day and it struck him that they looked like a bus. He’s been pondering that idea ever since.

The bus is made from materials we already had on hand, Easy Builder building blocks! I admire his resourcefulness using materials we already had. The only thing we had to get specifically for this bus was the wheels. His plan was to glue the blocks together paint them yellow (paint we also already had on hand) and draw on the details that would make the bus look good. Collin’s birthday was a perfect chance to build his prototype and give it a test run. I think he did a great job!

If he does decide to go ahead with this as a new product for Work Builders there will be some details to work on for sure. As you can see from the second photo, all four wheels don’t sit nicely on the ground and that is a detail not lost on Ryan. So we’ll need to do a better job with that. Also it adds some time and expense to be gluing the blocks together and such. We might find ourselves discussing other options for building materials. But these are things you learn when you build your first prototype, right?

So for now Ryan is pondering this bus as a new product offering. For the future, he has been writing down other ideas in a planning notebook. One he had me get at the store expressly for this purpose. In his planning notebook… All I can say is that he has the book broken down into sections each one containing a list of other products he is considering for production, soon.

As for me? I’m still holding the reigns, a little.

Earlier this week I took Ryan for a ride to make a delivery of Easy Builder building blocks. Little did he know, this delivery would wind up with a personal tour through the workshop of a local woodworking craftsman.

Off we went to deliver four sets of building blocks to a customer in Kirkwood, NY not far from home. I had an idea what could be in store for us and it was not disappointing! In working out the details of when and where we could drop off the order of blocks I learned that there was a cabinet making shop on the premises.

When we arrived we were greeted enthusiastically by our customer Wendi and Mr. Robert Gaube, a custom cabinet maker of some 30 years or more. After accepting the delivery of blocks from Ryan and congratulating him for his efforts both in business and for charity, they invited us inside to see a true woodworking craftsman’s workshop. It was wonderful!

Robert gave Ryan and I a nice tour of his workshop showing us each of his tools and describing how they are used. He explained how he builds cabinets from scratch with tools we saw there and years of experience. Ryan was interested to learn how these cabinets were constructed without the use of any nails or screws to hold them together, just wood joints and some glue.

There were two things in Mr. Gaube’s woodworking shop that impressed Ryan. First was the impressive quantity and variety of clamps which could be found in almost every nook and cranny of the shop. I don’t think Ryan missed a one. Second was the item shown to the left. As Mr. Gaube put it to Ryan, “This is what woodworking can buy you if you work at it!”

I had a lot of fun with Ryan and watching him experience what a real woodworking shop would be like. For me, I would love to go back sometime and spend some time doing photography in the shop. There were tons of interesting visuals there to be captured. Wendi and Robert be warned, I may be giving you a call one of these days!

Delayed a bit by some uncooperative weather, Ryan was able to make his second donation of Easy Builder building blocks this week. This donation was to Toys for Tots and was great fun. Toys for Tots representative Marine LCpl Danbach came to Ryan’s 1st grade classroom at Vestal Hills Elementary School, in dress blue uniform no less!

Ryan had a total of 51 complete sets of his building blocks on hand to give to Toys for Tots. In addition to that, his 1st grade teacher Mrs. Finch and the class added some more toys to the donation. The class has been following Ryan’s efforts to support charity and his teacher has used this to help teach about leadership and charitable giving. It’s been great to see Mrs. Finch and her class be so supportive, thank you! The school even added some photos from the day to their web site for all to see.

The school district had contacted local media about the donation so there was also some TV coverage of the event. This added a certain degree of excitement for the class on top of the Marine in uniform. Our cable news channel News 10 Now did a very nice story about the donation that Ryan made which you can view online from their web site.

The 1st grade class enjoyed the visit from LCpl Danbach thoroughly and they all behaved very well throughout. LCpl Danbach took time to talk with the class answering questions about Toys for Tots as well as a few about his experience in the Marines. I have to say he was quite skilled at addressing their inquiries carefully regardless of the nature of each question. It was evident this was not his first experience with kids.

The kids had some time to check out the building block sets as did LCpl Danbach. Then the TV reporters did some interviews with Ryan, LCpl Danbach and myself. Most importantly, Ryan got to make one more donation of his building block sets which made him very happy. With a smile, Ryan mentioned that it was a fun thing to know that on Christmas morning some kids somewhere would be opening a present that he had made. Then they would play with them and have fun. A nice thought indeed.

Today was the day on which Ryan finally got to deliver dozens of Easy Builder building block sets to charity. Ryan was invited to attend the monthly board meeting for SOS Shelter, one of the charities he decided to support by providing his building block sets as a donation.

Thanks to the help of over 100 volunteers who attended our Work Builders Block Party in November, Ryan was able to donate 51 sets of his blocks to SOS Shelter. We took Ryan and his blocks to their board meeting and the donation happened there. Before the meeting began we filled the conference table with sets of blocks for the board members to see.

Ryan was first on their agenda for the meeting so after a brief introduction Ryan opened up a set of blocks for them to see. Then the board members were all encouraged to open up a set of the blocks sitting on the table in front of them and check them out hands-on. Ryan enjoyed watching them “playing” with the blocks and they seemed to like the donation he made. A few of the board members had a question or two for Ryan and after that we were on our way.

As we headed home with the block sets left behind, I asked Ryan what he thought of the evening. He simply said that he “felt good”. I sort of felt that way too.