By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
An annual growing tradition, the Hays Toy Show, is set to return to Hays this month, bringing a wide variety of toys from all eras to be admired, bought and sold.
The event is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Rose Garden Banquet Hall, 2350 East Eighth.
While the show has come to be a fun yearly event, for Mark Wendelburg — who organizes the event with John Kreutzer — it symbolizes a love of toy collecting that began in his youth with his father.
“Fast forward a few years, I was working for John Deere down in Dodge City and started a show down there,” Wendelburg said. “And they are still going.”
He is no longer affiliated with the Dodge City show, but after transplanting to Hays, he decided to begin a new local show.
And so, eight years later, the show continues to expand, generating interest in toy collecting in a whole new generation.
“We want to just keep growing if we can as long as the hobby allows it,” Wendelburg said. “It's great to watch those little kids when they come into the show, and especially if they've never been the one before, and see their eyes light up.”
For attendees, he said a wide variety of toys will be on display by vendors from across multiple states, he said.
“There is a little bit of everything,” Wendelburg said. “There'll be vintage toys there. There'll be Hot Wheels, some dolls.”
This year’s show will also feature an attendee from WaKeeney with model trains, and trading cards and comics are also likely to be featured alongside classic and iconic toys.
He said 30 vendors have already signed up for the show and will showcase around 120 tables of items.
While many of those vendors will arrive from locations across Kansas, Wendelburg said he knows of at least two vendors each from Colorado and Nebraska that plan to attend.
As the show grew over the years, he said space has also become an issue, and so this year’s event will be the last at the Rose Garden.
“In two years, we're moving out to the fairgrounds,” Wendelburg said, adding he hates to move to a new location, but the additional room will allow the show to continue to grow.
Admission to the show is $4 for adults, children under 12 are free. The admission price is used to fund the show, as well as fund a donation to a local community organization every year.
“We don't we will really do it as a moneymaker, we just did more for the commodity to get people together,” Wendelburg said.
For more information about the Hays Toy Show, visit their facebook page, Hays Toy Show.
Image courtesy Pixabay