At Wild Play Woods we get our best materials from things that would otherwise be “trash”, and we appreciate help from the community stocking our adventure materials.
🏠 Cleaning out your garage? We’d love to put some of your discarded stuff to good use!
🛞 Love to go thrifting? You can help us out by keeping an eye out for cool stuff!
🎁 We also take cash donations, coats/jackets, boots, and rain gear to make sure all children are able to participate in our program.
Note about our environment: Since we’re always outdoors, we try not to collect things that will quickly fall apart in the weather. We focus on wooden, metal, cloth, and stone materials. We can take plastic items if they are thick plastic that won’t break down in the sun.
So what are we looking for?
🪣 Containers: buckets, bins, boxes, crates, tubs. Note: not Rubbermaid-type boxes which quickly break down in the sun. Also, no cardboard unless it’s a very large, special item.
🪢 Connecting items: chain, rope, cord, hooks
🥘 Mud Kitchen Things: pots, pans, trays, muffin tins, plates, bowls, serving spoons, spatulas, other large utensils
🟪 Fabric: Sheets, shower curtains, picnic blankets, tarps
🪑 Furniture: Outdoor tables, chairs, cushions
💈 Long things: pipes, tubes, poles
🧱 Building materials: boards, bricks, gutters, sheet metal
🔨 Tools: shovels, rakes, trowels
🛞 Parts of things: wheels, handles, hinges, springs
💎 Pretty Collectible Things: glass stones, river rocks, coins, game pieces, poker chips, dominos, shells, etc. The kids use these type of things for game money, for trading and collecting, and to decorate their spaces. They get lost easily, so we go through a lot of these!
💃 Small World Things: Small hard plastic or resin figurines – people, animals, trees, dollhouse items, etc.
📖 Books: We especially love nature-themed books – plants, animals, the weather, rocks, et.
🛝 Unicorns: our most exciting finds are BIG items that can no longer be used for their original purpose. Teacher Tom’s playground has an old row boat in the center, for example. Or what about a slide that’s missing its steps? Or an old metal bed frame? Who knows!
