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State Employees Rescue Stuffed Animals from Lab

Innovative Program Ensures Holiday Smiles

 

 

Each year, hundreds of stuffed animals are cut open at an Ohio Department of Commerce laboratory, sacrificed for the safety of Ohio consumers.  But, thanks to an innovative holiday program, these toys are being rescued so that they can be given to needy children. 

 

Commerce's Bedding and Upholstered Furniture section inspects filler material inside representative samples of stuffed toys sold statewide, to ensure the toys are safe and accurately labeled.  The toys are sent by the manufacturers to a state laboratory in Cambridge, where they are cut open by a lab technician.  The technician performs chemical and microscopic tests on the hundreds of different types of fillers used in toys produced by manufacturers from around the world. 

 

Instead of being disposed of, the toys are set aside until the holiday season, when they are "rescued" by state employees.  This year, employees from the Department of Commerce's Divisions of Industrial Compliance and Liquor Control and the State Fire Marshal’s office are donating their time to carefully sew 351 stuffed toys. 

 

The items will be donated locally to toy giveaways sponsored by WCMH Channel 4 and their “Firefighters for Kids” program in conjunction with the Columbus Division of Fire as well as to St. Stephen’s Community House and Heritage Day/Health Care (formerly Generations shelter for children).

 

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