Of the 50 or so people who use the shop (he requires everyone to sign in when they show up) many just “come in to use a screwdriver” and fix something from their apartments, according to Kay. A handful of others, though, come in and use the power tools to build furniture, toys, or other projects; Kay makes sure safety rules, which he and the Cedar Crest management put in place, are strictly enforced. For example, at least two people need to be in the room if someone wants to work on any of the power tools.

The joy of wooden toys
Kay works on many projects in the wood shop; he builds bookshelves for residents who request them, and he repairs everything from dining room chairs to jewelry boxes. Kay and his fellow woodworkers even cut pieces of masonite board that the Healing the Children charity turns into lapdesks for pediatric oncology patients.

But toys are what he likes to work on most. The fruits of his labor can be seen on the shelves that sit in the shop’s display window—cars with free-moving wheels and doors that open and close. A wooden replica of a vintage mail truck. A tiny golf cart. Cars with small wooden people inside. Kay continues to make toys, even though his grandchildren are now grown; he not only sells them in a craft shop at Cedar Crest, but he has also donated toys to a number of children’s hospitals, including St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Paterson, N.J.

“The joy of seeing the kids play with ‘em is the biggest thing for me,” he says.

Kay’s pride and joy, though, is a wooden replica of a large tow truck, modeled after a truck owned by one of his bank’s customers. The model took him a  year to complete; he had to take more than 50 photos of every aspect of the truck in order to get all the details right. “I’d go up and sit in the truck and take pictures and make patterns,” he says.

When the truck was finally finished, every moving part from the doors to the winch worked properly. “He (the owner of the towing company) wanted it. I said, ‘You can’t have it,’” he laughs.