Toyota Sienna Design and Drive 2010-Calty Design Research: Part III – Final

Welcome to Sienna-Calty Design and Drive 2010 Event – Part III (Final post!).  If you need to catch up, make sure  you read Sienna-Calty Design and Drive Event Part I and Sienna-Calty Design and Drive Event Part II.


This part of our tour was my favorite. We were allowed to watch the designers working their “magic” on a clay car that was the actual size of a car. The guys working on these cards were amazing. To say it was merely interesting is an understatement. It was unbelievable. We learned that we would also be playing with clay too, and we were like a bunch of kids in kindergarten. I haven’t been that creative in years. We were seated at a U-shaped table and we each had tools, and a hunk of clay shaped like a minivan.  The clay “masters” helped those of us who needed it.  We had some good laughs, and we all created something different.  I tried to make a sports car, but I’m not sure that is quite what it looked like!  My friend Kari said something incredibly funny – hence my silly face below:

After we were done playing in the clay, we were treated to a fabulous catered lunch outdoors.  The caterer specialized in healthy foods and let me tell you – I wish I had him for my personal chef.   We were served about four courses, each as yummy as the one before.

With our bellies full, we were escorted back to the reception area of Calty, where we were told about our Scavenger hunt!  We broke up into four groups – each group was given money, a gift card and a “needs” list for a one of two local charities.  Each group got to take a 2011 Sienna out to shop for those in need.  We were all pretty much speechless that we would be able to help these two wonderful charities, thanks to Toyota and Calty Design Research.  My group consisted of Valerie, Kari, Amanda and I and we were shopping for the Orangewood Children’s Foundation.  This is an amazing charity:

Orangewood Children’s Foundation began 25 years ago with a vision to build a facility to shelter Orange County children who were the victims of abuse, neglect and abandonment.

After its construction, the operations and administration of the Orangewood Children’s Home were turned over to the county’s Social Services Agency.

Today our focus is on the ongoing needs of children in the foster care system, developing a wide range of activities, scholarships, support and programs to give every child every chance to succeed.

We signed up to take the 2011 Toyota Sienna Limited out for our shopping expedition.  With list in hand, we headed out to our “chariot” and followed the directions to our first destination – Target.  Kari drove and Amanda was  her co-pilot.  Valerie and I enjoyed the back seat while resting our feet on the “reclining” back seats.  We also discovered that the back passenger windows rolled down.  Neither of us had ever seen that in a minivan before!  Of course we had the rear sunroof open too.

We spent a couple of hours carefully choosing the items that were on the list, and that would be most useful to the Orangewood Children’s Home, including a high chair, stroller, vacuum, silverware, baby food, sheet set and much, much more!  After we were done at Target, we each took a turn driving the Sienna.  I had so much driving it – it is fast and very, very smooth and responsive. We stopped at a couple of other stores on the way back to the hotel and finished stocking up.

When we arrived at the hotel, we went to our rooms to relax for a bit, while the gifts were being unloaded and arranged for the dinner that evening – where we presented our gifts to the charities, and had another amazing dinner. We got to sit with the folks from the charities – they were incredibly nice and so grateful.  The other local charity that received items they needed from the scavenger hunt was  Art and Creativity for Healing. This is an amazing program, run by the sweetest lady ever (Laurie – who I had the pleasure of sitting next to!):

We facilitate Art and Creativity for Healing workshops for children and adults suffering from abuse, illness, grief or stress on-site, and at hospitals and non-profit agencies.
Art and Creativity for Healing fine art classes and workshops address the emotional and social aspects of abuse, illness, grief or stress via the language of color and painting in order to provide encouragement and motivation for individuals living with these conditions.

Our workshops have already helped thousands of individuals including those with chronic and life-threatening illnesses, as well as at-risk and underprivileged youth recovering from child abuse, substance abuse and gang-related trauma, and their loved ones deal more effectively with the emotional, spiritual and physical impact of the disorder on their lives. By expressing themselves creatively, participants can document their experience in a profound way, thus creating a healing environment for themselves. Byproducts of the art experience are greater self-awareness, the confidence to process feelings and emotions, and the ability to articulate and share these feelings and emotions with others. Other therapeutic programs using art often employ a loose format of free expression.

The Toyota Sienna/Calty event was one trip that I will never forget.  Everyone involved made sure everything was perfect – for us and for the two charities.  They went above and beyond.

Thank you Calty, Toyota and Golin Harris for a wonderful experience – the Toyota Sienna easily has a new fan.