As your business grows you can't help but think about the environment and community that supports it.  For several months now we have been looking for a charitable partner that we can work with as our business grows.  There are so many amazing charities out there that we had a difficult time picking just one but, In early July Joyce and I had the opportunity to visit The Greater Minneapolis Crisis Nursery and take a tour with Joel Bergstrom, their Development & Communications Director.  We were immediately impressed with their mission, their staff & facility, and their long track record of helping families in need.  Besides their 24-hour crisis hotline the nursery offers crisis counseling, community referrals, parent education classes, family support groups and most importantly overnight residential care where parents place their children voluntarily for up to three nights while they address their crisis.  Being present enough during a crisis to know that you need to ask for help is impressive being courageous enough to accept it is down right amazing!  We are delighted to find such an amazing organization and look forward to the opportunity to grow the size and scope of our ability to help in the years to come.  For more information about The Greater Minneapolis Crisis Nursery please visit www.crisisnursery.org

       For the next four weeks (August 6th - August 31st) we will donate $10.00 to The Greater Minneapolis Crisis Nursery for every Original Bench Swing that we sell via our web store.  We have sold five since Monday and hope to sell many more.  If you have been waiting to buy our Original Bench Swing now is the time.  Click here for a quick link to our Bench Swings. 

As always, thanks for your support,

Bill & Joyce 

The Original Tree Swing was born in September of 2009, thanks to the encouragement and support from my partner Joyce.  As a mother, Waldorf teacher, and natural toy store owner; Joyce had critical insight that helped to guide me as I designed the toys that would make up my product line and grew my business.  While Joyce enjoyed being a retail store owner, her passion was teaching.  She taught at our local Waldorf school, she taught craft & handwork classes in a classroom she built in the back of her store, and she accepted an artist in residence position at a local charter school.  It seemed that no mater where she was children were drawn to her and her to them.  We jokingly called her the pied piper of children.  Ten months ago, Joyce started working on turning ten of her most popular classes into kits that children could do at home.  She spent endless hours refining each of the projects to ensure they were perfect, weeks drawing the labels, and what felt like an eternity hand drawing the instructions.  Today, as we launch the first ten Piped Piper Craft Kits (Joyce is already hard at work on the next ten kits) and our new website; we would also like to announce a marriage of sorts.  The Original Tree Swing & Pied Piper Crafts are joining together to bring you the best in wood toys & natural crafts.  We hope you enjoy them.  - Bill & Joyce