Dec 26, 2015 | By Kira
This Holiday season, millions of children worldwide will be waking up to stockings stuffed with treats and piles of gift-wrapped boxes stacked under their Christmas trees. Yet for many children in distress or disadvantaged areas, that won’t be the case. In order to bring smiles back to these children’s faces and to ensure that no one has to spend the holidays without a fun new toy, Createc 3D, a 3D printing makerspace and fab lab in Granada, Spain, has rebooted the ‘Printing Smiles’ campaign, which encourages makers to either design or 3D print toys that will be donated to various charitable organizations that work with children in need.
The original ‘Printing Smiles’ campaign, or Imprimiendo Sonrisas, was started during the 2013-2014 holiday season by Proyecto Clone Wars, a 3D printing RepRap community within Spain. This year, Createc 3D relaunched the idea, and has already managed to collect over 100 3D printed toys, ranging from miniature airplanes to colorful spinning tops, which will be distributed to children and families who couldn’t otherwise afford them during the month of January. (In Spain, it is customary for families to celebrate gift giving on January 6th, also known as The Day of the Kings).
Createc 3D is working with three known entities in the Andalusia region: Virgin del Pilar, is a nursery and school located in one of the most impoverished areas of Granada; Aldeas Infantiles SOS Espana, the Spanish branch of SOS Children’s Villages; and finally, the Fundación Albihar, a private, nonprofit founded in 1998 in Granada to promote human development across various social and cultural groups. The 3D printed toys will be altruistically donated to these three organizations in order to be distributed to the children they work with.
“All those who use [3D printing] technology see how people are amazed by the machines, amazed at the process of creating objects. When it is a child in front of the 3D printers, they are often smiling, thinking of the infinite possibilities for objects that can be created and played with. Now you have the opportunity to make a child smile,” said the Createc 3D team. “The idea of this campaign is that the Createc 3D lab, where we have already begun the production of toys, as well as anyone in Granada, Andalusia, Spain, Europe, or the World Solar System can send us a 3D printed toy.”
“Participants can 3D print in the lab or in their houses, with their 3D printer, toys that are a very cheap way to help, and then take them to the Createc 3D lab so that we can coordinate the distribution with associations or schools that need it," said Createc’s José María Torralba.
Createc 3D’s website offers several suggestions for 3D printable toy files, which are available via Thingiverse or through the Clone Wars original Imprimiendo Sonrisas Wiki page. However, if it’s 3D printable, safe, and fun, then just about any toy design will do.
The Imprimiendo Sonrisas/Printing Smiles is just one heartwarming example of how you can put your 3D printer to work for others this holiday season—or any time of year—and to spread a smile to someone who could truly use it.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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