That's why he knows whoever gets one of these toys this year, it will mean something special to them.
"My sister played with that for a long time. We had to pull her off of it for dinner. For a long time it was probably one of the more expensive things we owned," said the TK senior whose sister received the rocking toy in 2009.
This is the 13th year TKHS woods students have made the wooden rocking toys and given them away to young children in the district. The classes made 20 toys this year, bringing the total to 260 toys they've given away over the years.
"When we didn't have much, it made us all feel like we weren't doing our job to help make my little sister feel like a kid," said Trevor. "To have this toy given to her made us all happy. And now to be able to help make them is like it's come full circle. And the cycle will keep going. Something like this sticks with a person."
That's why Trevor spends both of his woods class periods working on making each toy perfect.
"I can't really put into words how much it meant to us," said Hodges.
Woods teacher Matt Melvin said the rocking toy project is something many students look forward to every year. They suspend their individual projects for a few weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas to become Santa's helpers and create the toys.
Tyler Anders, a sophomore, said he thinks making the toys is a great project. "It's one of the reasons I took this class. I wanted to help make these toys," he said.
The class used to make rocking horses as well as motorcycles. But the motorcycles were overwhelmingly more popular. Each rocking motorcycle comes complete with a "TK" wooden license plate on the back.
Hodges said this is the first year he's really been able to help with the project much. "I guess the moral of my story is never forget where you come from," said Hodges. "It feels good to be able to do this."
The toys will be distributed before Christmas to preschool children in the district.