The History of Whitby Toy Library

Whitby Toy Library first opened its doors on April 24th 1993. It had a membership of 60 families, ran from premises in the Whitby shopping centre and opened for 4 hours a week. There were 167 toys! and membership was restricted to the Paremata Plunket area and there was a waiting list.

Much has changed since then. Whitby Toy Library now has its own premises located at Adventure Park Car Park, has a membership of 179 families is open 5 hours a week and there are now over 1700 toys. Furthermore anyone can join as their are no boundary restrictions or waiting list.

Over the years, much fundraising has taken obviously taken place, not only to establish the toy library but to maintain and grow it. In 1992, over a period of nine months of fundraising, $10,000 was raised. Grants were received from Porirua Licensing Trust, Porirua City Council and the Hillary Commission. Cake stalls, sausage sizzles were held and Farmers Porirua adopted Whitby Toy Library as their charity of the year. Recent fundraisers include Entertainments Books and KiwiKlings.