Local Veteran Spreads Kindness Everywhere He Goes - The Gift of a Wooden Airplane

Above photo: Anthony Tubiolo, Patrick Farnan, Bailey Ploutz, and 3 ½-year-old Cedar (who’s  proudly holding up the wooden toy Tubiolo gifted him in the Cobleskill Walmart). After this photo was taken,Tubiolo received a, “Thank you,” and a hug from Cedar in return. And before, during, and after this reunion interview, The Mountain Eagle got to witness Tubiolo excuse himself to light up smiles by offering toy planes to more kids and magic mice to college students.

COBLESKILL- Has anyone ever walked up to you in Walmart, Price Chopper, Dollar Tree, at a restaurant, or even on an airplane, to ask if he can give your child a wooden toy? Or maybe you’re a veteran and were handed a “Proud to be an American” million dollar bill gift collectible.

“I was given a gift and if I can’t share it, what good is it?” Anthony Tubiolo expressed during a reunion with a family whose lives he forever changed on February 21st by offering their son, 3 ½-year-old Cedar, a wooden airplane he made. 

On the Cobleskill, NY Facebook page, Bailey Ploutz shared photos of the plane and said, “I'm not sure if anyone knows and could relay the message (or if he's in here)... the older gentleman who was at Walmart tonight and gave out wooden toys but I want to say thank you once again! It was so beyond nice to be reminded that people like him and that level of kindness are still out there!”

Quickly, comments rolled in with people sharing their photos and stories, too, “He gave my daughter one when we ran into him on the bike trail two years ago, he stopped and chatted briefly. Very nice man, more people should learn to spread smiles like he does.” -Jessica Kamp

“My daughter who’s 18 got one from him when she was probably around 5!!! So happy to see he’s still out there spreading joy to the kids.” -Megan Ashlie

“My son got one when he was about two, can’t remember where, but he’s 9yrs old now and still has it!” -Kristen Miller

“Yes his name is Anthony J. Tubiolo. He is a lot of my inspiration with my woodworking.” -Kyle Mclaughlin

Many recognized him as a local veteran who attends the Cobleskill Diner veterans breakfast every 2nd Wednesday of the month and started sharing gratitude in the comments for both his service and his kindness. And John Smith commented, “This is why Schoharie county will always be ‘home.’”

During the reunion, Patrick Farnan and Ploutz explained they’ve been coming to Cobleskill Walmart once a week for years, but this week was the first time they ran into Tubiolo. Ploutz described they were at the self-checkout, “Then he came over and asked if he could give a toy to our little boy, and I said, ‘yeah, of course!’ He gave him the toy and it was very shocking because you don’t see that a lot nowadays, and it was very heartwarming the kindness and the generosity of that.”

Most of the time, Tubiolo said parents' reactions start off skeptical because what he does isn’t a common occurrence, “They’re afraid of getting something for nothing; they wonder, ‘why is this guy giving away toys?’”  3 times out of 100, people say no and quickly walk away and he has seen kids throw his toys on the floor. But generally, they say thank you and then make sure their kids say thank you. Once a mother asked if Tubiolo could take a photo with her child after he surprised them with a toy.

Tubiolo recounted his story to share with those who want to know more about the man that gifted their children with handmade items; his rough childhood taught him to be a better father when that milestone came around in his life. At the age of 12, he moved from Grand Gorge to The Bronx, where he experienced a disinterest in school and witnessed his classmates destroying their principal’s car and throwing all their desks out windows. To get away from that environment, he joined the Navy and served for 4 years. After working a few months at a job his cousin helped him obtain, he decided to come back where he felt he belonged.

He found his love of woodworking in school, then made things for his kids and explained it snowballed from there. He gave his handmade toys to more kids in his family and saw, “how that lit up their faces;” this started him on the path of teaching a college woodworking class for a time, helping his grandkids craft something every time they visit, being a source for Boy Scouts & Girl Scouts to make their racing cars, periodically delivering toys to kids at a nearby Amish school, and bringing his bag of gifts with him to hand out everywhere he goes for the last 20 years.

At the reunion, Tubiolo gave Farnan a smoothed fidget stick he calls a Thumb Thing and confirmed he’s made thousands since he and his cousins came up with it about 45 years ago. Tubiolo used to give out cars, but lately for kids he has mainly been giving airplanes. Teens & college students receive a magic mouse (he knew someone who made them 40 years ago and explained nobody else makes them around here now), and kids and adults receive hearts (especially around the holidays to hang on their Christmas trees). Once he gave a young girl a heart while at Pizza Shack, and the parent shared the sentiment that Tubiolo gave his daughter a piece of his heart.

Tubiolo remarked he can make about 50 gifts in a couple days time using scrap pieces leftover from his larger projects & wood resources that people offer him, and estimates he’s handed out over 3,000 wooden airplane toys alone! 

“You have done way more than just given out a wooden airplane,” Ploutz told Tubiolo, “I was hoping that we’d find you, but I was also hoping to let people know there is a wonderful man out there who is doing this. You deserve the acknowledgment for what you’re doing.” Since receiving the plane, Cedar plays with it all the time and asked to bring it to a birthday party with him. Ploutz shared she was hesitant to let him bring it to the party for fear of losing it, “Because now that’s a special thing for us. It’s something that we’re going to pass down; we’re going to tell that story; we’re going to use your name now that we know your name.” 

Thanks to Ploutz’s Facebook post, Tubiolo’s generosity has been reciprocated by a resident who reached out to him and plans to give him a big box of supplies for his woodworking, including different wheels. 

“Honestly, he reminds me so much of my grandpa,” Ploutz shared, “It was like a breath of fresh air to see someone so kind do something like that just out of the blue. It was really nice, I appreciate that you made him (Cedar) so happy, which makes me so happy to see someone spread that kindness”

August will mark Tubiolo’s 79th birthday, and he keeps active by riding his bicycle a thousand miles every summer and walking as much as he can around cold weather. He likes to share about how he keeps moving in hopes of encouraging other people who want to do the same.

Tubiolo shared that he doesn't hand out these gifts for money or attention or praise; he doesn’t have a business card, and he’s stunned by getting to hear how special his handmade wooden gifts are to Ploutz, Farnan, Cedar, and to all who have shared an outpouring of their experiences and gratitude that he doesn’t usually get to see after watching their face light up before he walks away. ““When you see the smile on a kid’s face, that really makes my day, too.

One thing that’s very important to me is when they have a fundraiser for a sick child or something, I give them a whole bunch of stuff to auction or raffle off; I love doing that. Some of them make some good money with it, which I'm glad about.” Tubiolo also mentioned the Animal Shelter of Schoharie Valley and Marathon for a Better Life as organizations he donates his works to. “I think acts of kindness are so important. I just do it because I love kids, I love people. It’s so important to be a part of the community. The more I think about it, now, people might see this and say, ‘you know what, I want to do something, maybe.’ You don’t have to give anything away; help somebody with their groceries, open the door for them, or say hi. You just don’t see that much anymore, and I think we should see a lot more of it.” 

Tubiolo disclosed, “One time, I'm walking down the street and a guy says, ‘Hey! We were gonna move, and we decided not to because of people like you in Cobleskill.’”

Ploutz stated, Spread kindness; because you don’t know what someone’s going through or how their day is going, and something so simple like we were just at Walmart shopping and had no idea that this man was going to come up to us and have this wooden airplane toy mean so much to our family now.”

Photo shared by Bailey Ploutz on the Cobleskill, NY Facebook page of the handmade wooden airplane they were surprised with by Anthony Tubiolo, turning a routine shopping trip into a special memory of kindness and community.