Selling 'edu

CHARLEROI – Dean Helfer Jr. may not have been a straight-A student in college, but he ended up at the head of the class with his international toy company, the world’s largest producer of the returning boomerang.

“I was studying animal and veterinary science and failing miserably,” recalled Helfer, president and founder of Channel Craft in Charleroi. “So I decided I’d better take my dad’s suggestion, or demand, and get a business degree. The first business class I took was called channels of distribution. It was the only course I ever aced.”

In that fateful West Virginia University course, he was given 12 weeks to create, manufacture and sell a product to the consumer.

Helfer’s product? A boomerang.

The rest is Channel Craft history.

Helfer started as a one-man operation in 1983 while still at WVU, working out of the back of a step van/traveling wood shop. He drove from craft shows to folk festivals peddling his hand-crafted wood products. He even sold his boomerangs on campus.

“By the time I finished school, I was selling about $60,000 worth of boomerangs a year, along with yo-yos, pickup sticks and skip ropes,” Helfer said. “I realized there was no sense to go out and find a job.”

Helfer, who lives in Bethel Park, and a small crew eventually set up shop in Ellsworth. Partnerships were formed that turned into business and personal relationships.

Since 1991, Channel Craft has been producing boomerangs and other hand-crafted goods at its current location at 601 Monongahela Ave. in Charleroi.

“We do a whole series of authentic American toys and games and puzzles,” Helfer said. “We have a lot of fun with our toys and games, but the bottom line is they’re an ‘edu-tainment’ experience. They not only educate, but entertain.”

Channel Craft’s products items are available at Bradford House in Washington, The Spring House in Eighty Four, Pittsburgh Children’s Museum and Carnegie Science Center. They also are featured at numerous locations across the country, including the Smithsonian Institute, National World War II Museum and the Grand Ole Opry.

“It’s not just toys and games and puzzles,” Helfer said. “We create the kinds of things our customers can sell. They’re all quality crafted items with our customers’ images on them in full color and laser cut. When someone sees a person throwing a boomerang and then catching it, their first question isn’t how did you do that, it’s where did you get that.”

Along with the boomerangs, Channel Craft’s product line includes vintage items such as yo-yos, tops, pocket puzzles and whistles. The company also creates wooden earrings, postcards, rulers, fridge magnets and Christmas ornaments.

“We prime manufacture everything we do,” Helfer said. “We take it from a sheet of birch wood or a piece of poplar or cherry or maple and turn it into these products. Almost everything we make gets shipped immediately.”

Channel Craft took up residence at an old Army Corps of Engineers building in 1991. The company has occupied three buildings at the site since 1998, when a new warehouse and shipping facility were added.,

It has kept up with the times, embracing technology with the acquisition of two lasers and full-color UV printers, as well as a universal laser machine.

Helfer said he tried to expand to other countries.

“it was a whole lot of work and too much time,” Helfer said. “When we focused on selling our authentic American toys to Americans, that’s when we really started taking off. We have a keen focus on science, American history, nature and nautical themes. Our customers that are museums that are historically inclined really appreciate the interpretive value of our products, helping them tell their story.”

Channel Craft continues to tell those stories with its 40 employees creating those “edu-tainment” items.

“We’re constantly looking for the next product that can help interpret the past that can be sold to families of the future,” Helfer said. “We’re going to make sure these games have a life beyond today.”

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