Local toymaker has heart of gold

Jim Hildreth doesn't sport a white beard or wear a red suit, but he does have a workshop.It's a ventilated 12-foot by 18-foot piece of basement in his modest St. Charles ranch house. The space is equipped with a table saw, a jig saw, a drill press and belt sander. Tiny parts are kept in neatly-labeled plastic drawers.Shelves in a storage area across from the workshop are lined with wooden toys in primary colors, including pull toys, trucks, bulldozers, rabbits, dogs, a cradle for a doll, a paddlewheel boat and a tic-tac-toe board with spinning parts. Nearby, 20 yellow forklifts are stored in rows on a countertop.Hildreth, 85, has been making wooden toys for disadvantaged children since 1990."When I first started I was making toys for my two grandchildren," Hildreth said. "I used them as a test. I found out I really enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun. Knowing that the toys go to kids who can really use them makes it all worthwhile."Hildreth and other members of the Fox Valley Woodworkers Club make the toys, which the organization gives to local disadvantaged families each Christmas."Jim is our biggest contributor of toys," said Tom Sharp, president of the Fox Valley Woodworkers Club. "He makes a tremendous number of wonderful, wooden toys. It shows a lot about the man's character. He's Santa Claus in disguise."Hours of workHildreth generally takes a daily nap, but he still spends about four hours a day, seven days a week all year around making toys. He claims he was not very productive in the early years. But in 2006, he made 400 toys, and he fashioned 300 toys in 2007. Now he is producing for Christmas 2008."I've sold a few and given some away, but most go to the club," Hildreth said. "I try to make some for boys, some for girls, some for tots and others for older children. I have quite a mixture."Hildreth's work contains an element of design. He has constructed bulldozer toys after observing the design of St. Charles garbage trucks. And he got the idea for his three-wheel forklifts after watching construction equipment when a home was being built across the street. Former lithographerHildreth said he had a creative streak long before he began making toys."I always loved to draw and paint," he said. "In high school, I was interested in architectural drawings. I would have loved to design my own house."Hildreth, who was born in Chicago, grew up in Lombard and attended what is now Glenbard West High School.He served in the Navy from 1943 to 1945 on the Marshall Islands, about 100 miles north of Guam."I didn't have a trade, and I was on shovel duty," Hildreth recalled. "But I helped build the air base where they launched the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the bomb on Japan. Then I got into mess duty, and that was a lot better than digging ditches."After leaving the Navy, Hildreth began working as a lithographer for U.S. Printing on the east side of St. Charles. He worked there from 1948 to 1984, when he retired.Hildreth met his wife, Marilou, there."She handed out the paychecks," he said. They were married in 1952. They have two sons, a 20-year-old grandson and a 24-year-old granddaughter. Special recognitionThe Fox Valley Woodworkers Club meets at 7:30 p.m. the first Tuesday of the month at Bethany Lutheran Church in Batavia. Club members recently recognized Hildreth for his contributions at their annual Christmas party. It is at this event that local charities pick up the toys for distribution.He received a glass figurine as a gift. Fittingly, the figurine is titled "The Toy Maker."