Friends of the Carpenter helps build futures

The chunk of lumber looks like it spent a month face-down in a muddy parking lot, at the mercy of trucks that drove over it and dripped oil on it.

o What: Friends of the Carpenter

annual auction and banquet.

o When: Saturday (5:30 p.m. silent auction, 7 p.m. dinner).

o Where: Red Lion Hotel at the Quay, 100 Columbia St.

o Tickets: $50 (call 360-750-4752).

o Website: www.friendsofthecarpenter.org.

But turn it over, and it’s almost a work of art. The other side has been planed smooth, and its beautiful wood grain has been polished to a high gloss.

There’s a lesson in that, say the guys in the wood shop.

Actually, there are a couple of lessons, but let’s stay with that chunk of lumber. It was discarded, then it was salvaged. Eventually, it will be part of a beautiful piece of furniture.

That sort of second chance happens a lot at Friends of the Carpenter. Woodcraft artistry created from salvaged material will be on display Saturday at the annual benefit auction of the Vancouver nonprofit that ministers to the homeless.

The homeless people who receive help at the center represent the other part of that lesson, said volunteer Doug Hepburn. He turned a rough slab of walnut into a beautiful hope chest.

“You can liken that to people,” said Hepburn. “A lot of people we know are rough like that. There is beauty in all of us, but it is not always evident.”

“The metaphor is perfect,” said Duane Sich, executive director of Friends of the Carpenter. “Almost all the wood has been discarded, and our ministry is about those who haven’t found their way.”

Some people mistakenly think the agency trains homeless people to be woodworkers.

“We don’t,” Sich said. “We help people with basic needs for the day: bus tickets, gas for the car, groceries.”

Maybe a connection with Friends can help a homeless person get a job, “if we can give a good work-ethic reference,” Sich said. “A lot of employers want to give a person a chance, but don’t know if they’re reliable.”

While the agency’s name is a reference to Christ’s vocational training, hands-on carpentry is what supports the Friends’ programs. The work is donated by about 40 craftsmen and woodworkers.

Exotic touch

The wood also is donated. Some of it was rescued from a firewood pile, said shop foreman Dan Nicholas.

That shabby piece of lumber with the high-gloss flip side is macassar ebony from Indonesia that crossed the Pacific Ocean on a cargo ship.

“It came here as dunnage, for bracing cargo in a ship’s hold or for setting loads on with a forklift,” Nicholas said. “It’s so heavy they don’t want to ship it back.”

Friends of the Carpenter got a big supply of exotic wood about six years ago when a Portland supplier went bankrupt. The bank sold off as much inventory as it could, then told Nicholas his shop could have the rest.

“We got 31,000 board feet of African hardwood — 25 different species,” Nicholas said. “It came to three semitrailer loads.”

The walnut that went into Hepburn’s hope chest came from a local landowner who said the Friends could have the downed tree.

Some of the volunteer woodworkers donate their time in the shop at the Friends’ center, in an industrial area near the Port of Vancouver, while others have their own workshops at home.

The shop at 1600 W. 20th St. is a place where volunteers can spend a few hours with other people who appreciate the smell of fresh sawdust. They can support a good cause while sharing skills and ideas.

“I learn a lot,” said Tom Benner, who was sawing a piece of mahogany into table legs.

“This is a great resource,” said Ron Pulliam. “You get a lot of good ideas. I’d been thinking about making a dining room table for two years, and kept putting it off. Tom came in with a couple of magazines with designs.”

Bill Matney worked as a carpenter, and brings a lifetime of professional experience to the shop. But other volunteers took different routes to their wood-working avocations.

Pulliam said he managed a building supply company, but never had the urge to actually build anything.

“I was around it, but never did it,” Pulliam said. That changed when he was moving into a new house. He bought some carpentry equipment so he could make his own cabinets.

“I’m a mechanical engineer,” Henry Crouch said. “This is something I like to do.”

“I was an electrical engineer, which was a hectic job,” Allan Schwindt said. “I’d come home and would want to do something to unwind. I started this as therapy.”