Private First Class Rupert Valero took his toy-making hobby with him -all the way to Afghanistan! Valero is near the end of his year-long deployment, and took time for an interview with blogger Newton Gimmick, in which he talked about making toys out of recycled materials for the local kids, among other things.
Read the rest at Infinite Hollywood. Link -via Metafilter
See more of Valero's works in his Flickr stream. Link
I love to create and inspire. Plus, I love kids. So the hobbyist in me started making highly durable and colorful toys for local kids whenever we roll out the FOB. Toys are universal. They bring out happiness and joy on so many levels. Kids here have nothing but rocks and bad habits. I paint on hearts the toys I make for them to associate that with the heart patches sewn on 101st airborne units’ helmets. So when kids who get these toys see the same hearts on US Soldiers, it will click in him ‘these are friends.’
Read the rest at Infinite Hollywood. Link -via Metafilter
See more of Valero's works in his Flickr stream. Link
Inspiring work, i used to make similar robots out of juice tin-can it's very satisfiying.
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I was wondering when you guys would cover him. I bought one of his toys yesterday and I can't wait to get it!
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great post. i love that he put the hearts on the toys to associate back to the soldiers. plus, those are really cool toys.
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