By Alyssa McMillan
Mark Vanderwerkin is an everyday man. He has a wife and a daughter, lives in Portage, and worked as an electrician for thirty years. But that’s not all.
For about four years, Mark has been making many things in his workshop, including wooden toy trucks, which he gives away for free.
He began making model kits “for something to do, but the model kits were so crumby and I thought, ‘Geez, I could do this out of wood and be better with it,’” said Mark. “So I started building. I’ve had a garage full of these, and I gave them to a resale shop, but it just didn’t feel the same, you know? I’d rather give them to somebody that appreciates it than people who just buy them and take them. . .”
Mark’s trucks allow children to have lots of fun without the need for batteries or electronics. Better yet, they’re good for the environment.
“Where we lived at the apartment complex, people would throw out furniture,” Mark said. “Instead of the furniture going to the dump, I would cut it up, recycle it, and glue it together, and that’s how I would make my toys. It wouldn’t cost me any money.”
Every toy truck Mark makes goes to a good home where it can be enjoyed and appreciated by a child. But, before he gives them away, Mark takes safety precautions. “On some of these toys, they have sharp edges,” Mark explained. So he makes sure that the recipients are “older than a toddler, because anyone younger, they may chew on them.”
Mark’s toys have made many children happy, but there’s no age limit on the recipients of his art.
“I make a lot of different things for a lot of different people,” Mark said. “I do it on the spur-of-the-moment, different things that I like to do.”
Even before he started making toys and other wooden pieces, Mark’s woodworking skills were impressive. So much so, in fact, that they caught the attention of people who turned out to be important.
In 1990, Mark was an electrician working on a miniature golf course under construction. A worker had a request: “‘Could you build me a lighthouse?’ I said, ‘Sure, I’ll build you a lighthouse.’ They said, ‘You make me a lighthouse, and we’ll make you famous.’ I said, ‘Yeah, okay.’ They took me all over the United States with them. I built lighthouses, pirate ships, and all that stuff.”
Fun fact: Some of the lighthouses Mark built were 26 ft tall.
Mark has been woodworking since childhood, so it’s no surprise that his projects turn out well. But what got him into woodworking in the first place?
Mark’s answer is simple: “I love working with wood and building things.”
It goes to show that hobbies can be much more than a pastime. When done by the right person, they can help all sorts of people.
