As they have for years now, prisoners at Polk Correctional Institute work all year round to prepare for the holiday season, making wood toys for needy children.
- About 10 men work each day on toys
- Specialties include intricate dollhouses, dump trucks, airplanes
- For more information, visit Polk County Toys for Tots
One of those prisoners making toys this year is Gradie Atwood.
“You know you can’t blame anybody but yourself, because you make the choices in life you know. It’s all on you," Atwood told us as we spoke to him from the woodworking shop at the prison.
Atwood is serving a six-year sentence for dealing drugs. He told us he has five children he doesn't get to see very often, so as he works on toys that will go to other children, he thinks about his own.
"Because I see what if my child wasn't able to have a Christmas?" Atwood said. "I would want somebody in this situation or have some type of establishment to where they would get toys."
About ten men work each day in the shop dedicated to making the toys. Specialties include intricate dollhouses, dump trucks and airplanes.
Photo: Rick Elmhorst, staff
Polk Toys for Tots Director Dave Waller stopped by the workshop Dec. 18 to thank the inmates for their work.
“We’ve had families come pick up these toys and parents will actually cry," he told the inmates.
Atwood hopes the children who get the toys for Christmas can somehow feel the love behind them.
"Everything I do in here comes from the heart. I do it because I want to," he said.