ChildTrek Blog

Contact: Annette Roth, Marketing Director

IR2 Media Group Inc.
Phone:  253-212-037
Email: aroth@ir2media.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Please join us for Green Play: A Toy Safety Fair
At ChildTrek, located in Tacoma’s historic Freighthouse Square
430 East 25th St., #3
Tacoma, WA 98421
December 6, 2008 from 10:00 am – 6:00 pm

On December 6, 2008 from 10 am – 6 pm, ChildTrek (www.childtrek.com) will be hosting Green Play: A Toy Safety Fair.  This informative safety fair is designed to provide parents and child-care providers information about various harmful elements and chemical in toys, and to help them become proactive consumers.

A number of activities are scheduled for the fair, including: 

–Test Your Toys:  Hosted by Essco Safety Check, our customers can bring their children’s toys to our store to test them for harmful elements and chemicals, with state of the art equipment.  You can use this FREE service to find out what, if any, toxic metals or chemicals are present in your kids’ toys, including lead, cadmium, or mercury.

–Green Initiatives:  Learn about current and prospective policies and initiatives designed to protect you and your family against toxic pollution.  Highly informative.

–School-Readiness Advice:  Talk with preschool and elementary teachers to get practical school-readiness advice for your child.

–Test for Lead:  Designed specifically for pregnant and breastfeeding women, we are offering a service that allows you to test for lead levels in your own body.

All of these activities are FREE to the public.  There will also be great toy giveaways and specials, available especially for this informative event. More at http://www.childtrek.com/toy-safety-fair-2008.html.

What is ChildTrek?

ChildTrek is South Sound’s newest eco-friendly toy store, located at Tacoma’s historic Freighthouse Square. In its very first year in business, ChildTrek was recently voted by King 5 Evening Magazine as a Top 5 Winner in the Children’s Gift category.   ChildTrek features unique, fun, green toys and books for children, babies and toddlers.  All toys sold at ChildTrek are child-safe and non-toxic, finished with beeswax, water- or vegetable-based dyes, or non-toxic paints.

For more information, please contact us, customercare@childtrek.com.  You can also visit the user-friendly and highly-informative website at www.childtrek.com.

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By Miebeth Bustillo-Booth, ChildTrek Founder

ChildTrek carries a large selection of the multi-award winning Plan Toys at competitive prices. They are green, smart, and safe.

As a former teacher, I am impressed by the educational themes and thoughtfulness with which Plan Toys are designed to promote open-ended play, creative role playing, as well as stimulate intellectual and emotional development. These are truly amazing natural toys.

In upcoming blogs, I will review individual Plan Toys like the Solid Wooden Drum, Xylophone, Activity Clock, Shape & Sort it Out, Geometric Sorting Board, and others to explore benefits of specific toys. For now, let me begin by sharing adapted statements made by Plan Toys.

Plan Toys are Green
All Plan Toys are made with clean, natural rubberwood recycled from rubber trees that would otherwise be cut and burned. This process emits carbon emissions, creating carbon gasses that contribute to global warming. Plan Toys breaks this cycle by making high-quality toys with this beautiful hardwood. If that were not enough, Plan Toys takes the time to stabilize the wood using a chemical-free kiln-drying process instead of chemical preservatives.

Plan Toys is also one of the few toy companies that have gained environmental certifications. Here are examples:

1) Environmental Management (ISO 14001), which reflects the Plan Toys’ company’s commitment to environmental awareness and activities.

2) OHSAS 18001, which certifies Plan Toys as a company that provides a safe and healthy working environment.

3) Social Accountability Management (SA 8000), which recognizes the Plan Toys company’s policy to provide full and equal opportunity to all of its workers.

Plan Toys are Safe
Plan Toys assembles toys using a proprietary non-formaldehyde glue instead of traditional toxic wood glue. The glue emits no formaldehyde fumes and is rated E-Zero.

Plan Toys uses water-based dyes to color its toys. The colors are environmentally-friendly and non-toxic to children.

Plan Toys produces all of its toys in its own factory, which ensures complete control of materials and workmanship.

Plan Toys also has achieved the following safety certifications:

1) Quality Management (ISO 9001) for world-class product quality and service standards.

2) Toy Safety Standards (ASTM & EN71, — otherwise known as North American & European Safety Standards, respectively) for EXCEEDING international toy safety standards.

Plan Toys are Smart
Plan Toys makes toys with strong educational themes. From building blocks, to shape sorters, to games, puzzles and pounding toys, Plan Toys offers age-appropriate challenges for intellectual and physical development. Plan Toys offers open-ended play, creating a setting for hours of role-playing, creative play and emotional development. Plan Toys promotes the importance of play in a child’s development by combining design, age-appropriate challenges, and open-ended play to empower children, encourage social interaction, and reward discovery.

Check out our selection of Plan Toys.

By Miebeth Bustillo-Booth, ChildTrek Founder

Old is New Again
There’s great satisfaction in giving old things new life. A bit of sanding here, a fresh coat of paint or stain there, (a lot of patience), and voila! Great pieces!

In the last few days, ChildTrek’s new storefront in Tacoma’s historic Freighthouse Square got a fresh coat of low VOC paint. (Make that several coats of paint.) New cabinets were made and staged. True to our green mission, we found old wooden bookcases, display units, and an iron baker’s rack. They were in great shape and worked well together. They received face lifts and look terrific! Two counters that look like they came from the ’80s were joined and recrafted by a master carpenter to become ChildTrek’s new checkout counter. Not much of the ’80s is left (that’s a good thing), and it looks absolutely wonderful!

New Baby & Toddler Toys & More
New natural and wooden toys also arrived. Some like Under the Nile organic toys are already on the site. You should see be able to view the rest soon.

By the end of this week, the storefront should have internet and working phones.

There are still about a buzzilion other things to check off the ever growing list before ChildTrek quietly opens its doors on July 1 or 2. At that time, we will do a dry run and work out the kinks that will doubtless come. ChildTrek’s grand opening will be later in the month or early in August.

Below are some shots from the last week:

Come back and see the finished store next week!

By Miebeth Bustillo-Booth, ChildTrek Founder

From Virtual to Reality
ChildTrek will soon open a “real” store in Tacoma, Washington’s historic Freighthouse Square. In the next few weeks, I will chronicle the store’s transformation. For now, here are some before pictures. First thing: Goodbye to all that blue. Hello green!

Grand Opening
ChildTrek opens its doors on July 1 and holds its grand opening sometime after. ChildTrek is located just to the right of the Sound Transit ticket terminals and under what I fondly call “the little engine that could.” Go to ChildTrek.com to view a selection of high-quality, unique, natural toys for babies and toddlers.