“It's the families. It's the children. It's the environment. It's my local community that I love and the friendships that I've made along the way. It's a really great group of mothers running the Toy Library and it’s been very, very, very rewarding.”

In late 2022, the KU Marcia Burgess Foundation donated $20,000 to support the purchase of early learning resources for the establishment of a new Wyndham Little Buddies Toy Library. The new toy library sits alongside KU Birnbial Kindergarten in Manor Lakes in Melbourne’s outer western suburbs.

Kirsten Marram, president of the volunteer committee met with KU Alumni Connect.

How did the Wyndham Little Buddies Toy Library get started?

It was instigated by a couple of mums involved in a local playgroup who heard about toy libraries at a networking conference and the benefits they bring to the community. We’ve recently celebrated 25 years since opening our first toy library in Werribee at the Wyndham Community Centre. Our second toy library opened in Point Cook in 2010, and in March 2023 we opened at Manor Lakes. We now welcome over 850 family members and with Manor Lakes still growing.

Why was Manor Lakes identified for a Toy Library?

Manor Lakes is in the far outer western suburbs of Melbourne. It’s a new development area with lots and lots of houses and not much infrastructure. Families were driving over half an hour to access the Werribee or Point Cook toy libraries. That's how much they wanted the service.

When the opportunity came up to set up a toy library at Manor Lakes, it was like yes!

At the time we had a relationship with our local Federal MP, Joanne Ryan, and Toy Libraries Australia had been lobbying the Labor State government for more toy libraries in the growth corridors. The government pledged $20,000 towards establishing the toy library in Manor Lakes. Wyndham Council spent those funds on structural fit outs for two rooms in the building KU leases and alongside KU Birnbial Kindergarten.

It’s been a huge success already despite my initial worry of whether people would come. Thanks to the $20,000 donation from the KU Marcia Burgess Foundation, we’ve been able to purchase 298 toys across a wide range of categories. We have toys for babies, imaginary play, outdoor play, dress ups, STEM, games and puzzles. We also have Aboriginal early childhood education resources from Yarn Strong Sista, which we aim to grow. As you can see, it was such a significant contribution to establishing our collection of high-quality toys which we are confident will enrich the lives of families from our local community.

The uptake has been so fast, it's been incredible. After only six weeks of opening, we had 70 families join and after five months 155 families are now using the toy library.

The average age of people in the Windham area is around 35 or 40 years; young culturally diverse families, people starting out trying to buy their first home. People don't have a lot of money to just buy their kids whatever and so the library is well placed to support the community.

How do the Toy Libraries operate?

The vision of the committee is that every child in Wyndham has access to play with high quality toys.

Membership fees are $60 annually (that’s about the cost of a good toy) and we offer a concession rate of $40 per year. We've seen a lot of the kinder aged families coming through, but of course they have siblings older and younger, so it's quite mixed.

We have about 10 parents volunteering, and we use membership fees to employ toy librarians. The committee is very active and responsible for the oversight of the libraries, fundraising, membership drives and renewals, marketing and promotions, financial management and recruiting of volunteers.

We've already got some of our new members volunteering with us. Volunteering is such an important part of the toy library and a way to open doors for people. The reception from the local community has been amazing with so much enthusiasm.

How did you get involved and what motivates you to continue this community goodwill project?

I first heard about it from a friend who was a member. I remember visiting her house and saying, "what are those toys with the little numbers written on them?" and she told me about the toy library. It made so much sense to me. I've always been the kind of person that likes to borrow or buy second hand, and conscientious about spending and sustainability.

I joined the toy library as a member when my daughter was six months old - that’s nine years ago. When I was on maternity leave with my second daughter, I thought taking some photos could help with the website. That’s how I became involved with the committee. When they needed a new President, I could see the toy library had a lot of potential and I’m one of those people that if something needs doing, I can't help myself. I’m still loving it. I work as a social worker, which is quite serious in nature, whereas the toy library is just full of joy. It's about toys.

The committee does a lot to drive new memberships and renewals, and understand what works for the community, like opening hours, and wear and tear on toys. It’s a very strong team and I've made a lot of friends along the way. I worry about the environment and it's very overwhelming when you think about it, but this is one thing I can do. From research, I know that for every family that joins the toy library, that’s 50 less toys going to end up in landfill.

Wyndham is a low socio-economic community with the highest birth rates in Australia. It has the largest Aboriginal population within Greater Melbourne and 41% of the population were born overseas, coming from 162 different countries.

If you would like to support the KU Marcia Burgess Foundation, find out more here and to donate.

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