The Open Toy Box, often also called “the Grey Lynn Toy Library”, was set up in 1995 by a group of parents within Grey Lynn. We are a not-for-profit organisation with charitable status and are a part of the Toy Library Federation of New Zealand.  If you are interested in joining a toy library but do not live near ours, you can follow the link on this page to the Toy Library Federation website where you can search for your closest library.

Our library is managed and staffed by our members, who work as volunteers, and by our paid librarians who run our lending sessions. Over the years membership has ranged between 90 and 140 families. At 140 families we consider ourselves to be fully subscribed; more than this would compromise the availability of a range of toys for our member families.

We do not receive any government funding. We are funded through our members subscription fees, fundraising activities and grants that we apply for to help raise any additional money we need to maintain and improve our selection of toys, pay for our librarians, our rent on the use of our premises and our other running costs.

Many hands make light work, and thanks to the enthusiasm and community spirit of so many of our members over the years, The Open Toy Box is a vibrant, lively community resource loved and appreciated by many families in the area.