His Foundation Donated Over 1M Toys to Kids. After His Death, He Was Remembered as a 'Year-Round Santa Claus'

Mar. 15, 2025

Alton Thacker.Photo:Courtesy Alton Thacker

Courtesy Alton Thacker

Alton Thacker, a Utah man who co-founded a nonprofit that has donated over 1.7 million wooden toy cars to children around the world, has died. He was 89.

Alton Thacker.premierfuneral.com

premierfuneral.com

Thacker was born in Utah and eventually became a barber, opening Al’s Style Shop — a location that he operated for nearly 30 years, according to his obituary.

He and his wife Cheryl developed a love for charity work when they made their first trip to Mexico with one of his longtime barbershop customers to hand out donated eyeglasses, hepreviously told PEOPLEin 2017. The trip prompted them to continue returning to Casas Grandes 10 times a year with a trailer filled with toys, clothing, wheelchairs, medical supplies and more — before they founded Tiny Tim’s in 1996, per his obituary.

Thacker previously described the nonprofit to PEOPLE as a “year-round Santa operation of the merriest kind,” where he and volunteers made and distributed thousands of cars a year to children in places including Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, local children’s hospitals and local homeless shelters.

While Thacker began building the toys in his garage, things eventually expanded. According to theWall Street Journal, volunteers for Tiny Tim’s workshop include retirees, people with disabilities, Boy Scouts and even inmates who work on the wooden vehicles at Central Utah Correctional Facility.

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To date, the foundation says it has “given away more than 1.7 million toy cars in more than 110 countries around the world,.”

“For too many kids, one of our little wooden cars is the only toy they’ll ever get,” he previously told PEOPLE. “And that’s what keeps me going. I’m told that the need for toys around the world is more than 500 million. Can you imagine that? Five hundred million! So it looks like we’ve got a little work to do at Tiny Tim’s to keep up.”

His daughter, Ashley Krause, and his granddaughter, Emilee Johnson, took over the foundation in 2022, per his obituary.

source: people.com