Tegu Makes “Curiously Attractive” Green Toys

Published May 9, 2012 at 1:47 am - No Comments

We’ve all had the experience of buying our children that one toy they begged for, only to have them use it for an hour and then never pick it up again. The best toys are the ones that are not intended for only one use, or one purpose, but instead allow the child to create, build, dream, rebuild, and recreate as many times as they possibly can. Tegu toys are exactly the kind of toys that can be played with over and over again and grow as your child grows, so they will never lay forgotten in that dark corner of the toy box. Plus, all of Tegu’s non-toxic toys are sustainably made in their company-owned factory, located in Honduras. As an added bonus, the purchase of a Tegu toy allows forests to grow and children to attend school.

How does a successful toy company build a business from the ground up in Honduras? In 2006, Tegu co-founder Chris Haughey made a trip to Honduras, a country with an unstable economy and widespread deforestation. He left with the idea to form a company that could provide positive social, economic and environmental impact within Honduras while turning a profit. Together, Chris and his brother Bill began to put their idea into action, from finding a location in Honduras’s capital city, Tegucigalpa, to testing toy ideas in kindergarten classrooms in San Francisco. It seems that the combination of native Honduran hardwood blocks plus a secret magnet hidden inside that allowed children to build up, out, over and around was their key to success. Soon the toys were so popular that their factory briefly had a waiting list of over 2,000 orders!

In basic terms, Tegu toys are blocks, one of the most fundamental childhood tools for teaching imaginative play and creative thinking, not to mention hand-eye coordination, math concepts and storytelling. But Tegu blocks are not just any block. First, Tegu blocks are constructed out of native Honduran mahogany or Huesito woods, neither of which are endangered. Within each block are hidden magnets that are not accessible by kids, but make the experience of building with Tegu blocks a completely different experience than simply stacking one block upon the other. Instead, kids are able to create whatever their imagination can conceive: a horse and rider, a castle, a bird, vehicles, or anything their imagination can dream up, since they no longer need to worry about gravity wiping out their creation with one misplaced block.

Tegu encourages children and families to send photos of their creations to Tegu, and the website has a show ‘n’ tell page simply for this purpose. In doing this, Tegu has created a space for customers to share ideas and draw inspiration from other Tegu users, plus designs are entered into contests and giveaways and even provide the basis for future Tegu toys! Tegu offers many different sets of Tegu toys, from small travel sets in environmentally friendly travel cases, to the 52-block original set in a variety of colors that are non-toxic and safe– in case little kids are more interested in putting the blocks in their mouth. Also available for purchase are wooden block car kits with magnetic wheels.

Since giving back was always in the company’s plan, they quickly found a way to help both the environment and the native Honduran people. Although Tegu sources and uses their wood responsibly, they still wanted to create something better for Honduras, and that meant planting trees. They partnered with a non-governmental organization that plants trees in Honduras. So far, they have planted 34,512 trees thanks to the purchase of Tegu toys. Another issue that Tegu found was the lack of available education for some native Tegucigalpa children. Over two hundred children come from families that work at the municipal trash dump outside the capital city. The kids often help work alongside their parents instead of attending school and are lucky to earn $0.80 for a day’s efforts. Tegu offers customers the chance to purchase school days for these children so that they can get the education that would otherwise be out of reach. Tegu’s efforts have funded 3,326 days of school so far.

Tegu toys inspire imagination and provide the basis for that most critical component of childhood: play. While your child is building a spaceship or creating a city, trees are planted, children are learning, and the native people of Honduras are making a living wage building the toy your child will love to build with.

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