The Wood Whisperer Guild Fights Cancer
I have mentioned before what a valuable resource The Wood Whisperer Guild is to me. It seems that it is time to give back. Marc Spagnuolo thought it would be fun to organize a group build where all of us guildees could build a simple project and help one another out during the collective build. The chosen project is a simple Shaker side table like this one I built earlier this year.
The design is simple enough that even our most novice members can challenge themselves to build their first furniture piece. On the other end for the more advanced members the simplicity of the design allows for a lot of variation and personal embellishment. In my case I want to satisfy my Queen Anne tastes by adding a little southern 18th century charm to it and model the table after a piece in the Colonial Williamsburg collection. More on this later and I will of course share my build process. That is not what this post is about as you may have guessed by the title.
One of our number, Duane, has been fighting with pancreatic cancer for a while now. You may remember Duane from Marc’s steamer trunk build where he helped Duane build an heirloom by creating a video series. Unfortunately, Duane’s cancer is not ready to give up it’s fight and it has taken a strong hold on him lately. He is really excited about this group build but has concerns about being strong enough to complete it. Marc and Nicole, being the incredible people that they are, flew out to Ohio to visit Duane and do some one on one coaching to give Duane his head start on the project.
That was not enough and Marc has dedicated our March build to Duane and for every guild member that completes this project, Marc and Nicole are going to personally donate $5 to the American Cancer Society. In addition, being the savvy business people they are, this dynamic duo has gotten a few companies to agree to match this amount too. All of the guild members are encouraged to donate as well and we of course welcome the general public to donate. I have been in touch with Marc and he is working on getting a donation page up on his free site. I’ll let you know when that is up and link to it as well. Stay tuned, in the meantime…
Now I have recommended that everyone join the guild in the past because of the value it can bring to your woodworking, but now there is a higher calling. Why not join up, learn a lot, make some great friends, build a beautiful piece of furniture, and contribute to a great cause. I make no secret of the fact that I am an affiliate for the guild and if you click the link at the top of this page and join the guild, I will donate 100% of my affiliate fees back to the American Cancer Society for the duration of this project.
Come on, everybody’s doing it. Let me sum up by quoting our Guild master Marc in an email he sent earlier today.
This isn’t just about woodworking as a task, its about woodworking as a
lifestyle, and woodworking as a Community. I want people to be inspired
by what we are doing, and perhaps even donate to the cause themselves.
God bless you Marc and Nicole, and hang in there Duane we’re all praying for you.
