the Living Toy Project. in The Wind it Doth Blow...
- Sept. 15, 2013, 2:23 p.m.
- |
- Public
The most amazing thing happened yesterday. I kid you not! Our girls had finished their swimming lessons and we had driven to Old Town for the annual Mela. We were a little early so meandered towards the bank along Wood Street. It's a street with non chain stores; gift shops, deli's, bars, jewellery stores etc...
As we walked along I spotted a cuddly toy on the floor and felt a little sad for the child who had dropped it and the toy itself (a cuddy German Shepherd) who may well be feeling abandoned.
But... There was an envelope attached to his leg by a rubber band. It had the words 'Please Read Me' in big letters . I opened the envelope and read it. I won't transcribe the entire thing but long story short; Dog is part of the Living Toy Project in which 50 cuddly toys have been distributed around our town along with the same letter.
Each is to spend a two week holiday with a family, joining in with whatever the toys' new families do and the families send photos and diary entries about the toy during the two weeks.
We named Dog CodenOdin and he's been to the Mela where he ate lamb curry, watched some Indian dancing and watched a Punjabi qwaali band. Then today he's been to a ceramic painting place. He also had to spend two hours meandering with Lila and me as Tally (our reident artist) spent three hours painting her ceramic bear!
I love that we happened upon Dog so that we can be a part of this fun project!!
If you want to see more about it, check Living Toy Project on Tumblr, facebook or LivingToys on instagram.
edna million ⋅ September 17, 2013
That is such a cool thing to do! Here (well, maybe other places too but here for sure) there is a thing called Flat Stanley which is a kind of similar project. Flat Stanley is a paper doll who kids cut out and color, and then send to friends in far-flung places. They track Flat Stanley's travels and whoever has him is supposed to take pictures of him wherever he's "visiting". A friend of my dad's had one that a grandchild of one of her friends had mailed to her, and she brought him to visit us and we took pictures of him at the university here. She also carried him several other places and took photos.
I love the idea of an actual stuffed toy, though -- that's a great project!
ermentrude edna million ⋅ September 17, 2013
There's a series of books here called flat Stanley - I wonder if it's related?! Dog (aka CodenOdin) is going to school today! X
edna million ermentrude ⋅ September 17, 2013
It IS - I just looked it up, and the idea for the project came from the books. It's been going on since 1995 and involves many countries now, so it's way more far-flung than I realized. Probably due to not having kids myself. Interesting! I do hope Dog had a wonderful day at school-
ermentrude edna million ⋅ September 17, 2013
That really is cool! Dog had a lovely day, thanks. X