2023 Community Projects

Diablo Woodworkers Okizu Community Project

March – June 2023

In December 2022 Diablo Woodworkers (DW) was, for the first time in years, unable to sell its annual main MDAE Craft Fair item, the Sam Maloof Inspired Rocking Chair.  The chair was built and finished by a topnotch team of DW craftsmen.  The team included: Joe Abel, Andy Ferguson, Ed Steffinger, Ben Townley and Ron Kersey.

In early 2023 two unrelated events converged to alleviate the issue of finding a deserving home for the Maloof Rocker. First, a small group of DW’s had to move the leftover beautiful black walnut wood used for the ARF bench projects to a loft at MDAE.  Second, DW Club became aware of an annual Gala Art Auction being sponsored by Okizu.  Okizu is a Bay Area non-profit that supports parents/grandparents whose kids have cancer by having an annual summer camp in the Sierras for these kids.  One of the DW members has a grandson who attended this summer camp for years, and DW Club had donated custom built outdoor Adirondack furniture to Camp Okizu in 2013 and 2016.

The opportunity to donate to Okizu again was too good to pass up.  So DW Club decided that the Maloof Rocker would our first donation. We also felt we could use some of that walnut to build a very special coffee table.  Specifically, we used the pattern from another great American craftsman legend, George Nakashima.  The auction was in March but, fortunately, the items did not have to be delivered at that time.  A small team built the table, led by Michael Jesse and included Gregg Langlois, Joe Hirt, Darin Peterson, and David Lipscomb with photography and delivery by John Dzenitis.  In early June the Nakashima Inspired Live Edge Coffee table and the Maloof Rocker were both delivered to a very generous lady in Marin County who donated $5,500 for both items.

2021 Community Projects

Boxes for Beads of Courage

Diablo Woodworkers is joining with Bay Area Woodturners Association in making boxes for seriously ill children.  The children receive beads for their treatments and collect them in the boxes.  If you want to make a box for this worthy program, contact the Diablo Woodworkers program coordinator, Dante Paulazzo, at dpaulazzo@comcast.net.  Dante is collecting complete boxes at his business, 2800 Mt. Diablo Blvd, Walnut Creek.  For more details, check the links below.

Since Beads of Courage members may receive thousands of beads, the boxes need to be large and have lids.

Turned Bowls/Boxes: Internal dimensions Minimum 6” Diameter, 5” Height

Flatwork boxes: Internal dimensions Minimum 4” x 6” x 4”

Lids: Should be easy for small or ill children to remove or lift.  Any finials should be easy to grasp and not to delicate, so they don’t break.

Avoid elaborate designs that may easily break or be damaged

Finish: Best is oil-based or water-based polyurethane.  Seal all surfaces to prevent mold from accumulating.

Where do the boxes go?  Presently, John Muir is participating in the program.  Kaiser and UCSF Children’s Hospital have suspended the program due to Covid, but plan to return to the program.

Donation form: Complete the Direct Hospital donation request form and bring it with you when delivering your boxes to Dante. Here is the link to the form: https://beadsofcourage.z2systems.com/np/clients/beadsofcourage/survey.jsp?surveyId=76&

Please note that you only need to fill out the “Donor Information”. We will complete the “Donation Information” when the boxes are delivered to the hospital.

About Beads of Courage: They are dedicated to helping children with serious illness record, tell and own their stories of survival. They have been working diligently to transform the treatment experience for children coping with chronic life-threatening illness through their arts-in-medicine programs. In the 16 years since their inception, the organization has established programs in over 240 children's hospitals and serves children in 14 countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Here is an influential video about bead making and the Beads of Courage Program - https://youtu.be/WMCcJxO9mnY .

2020 Community Projects

The Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF) in Walnut Creek, CA had a walnut tree come down, and have contacted our club to build a bench out of the lumber. A group from the Diablo Woodworkers worked hard to move the logs so they could be milled.

2019 Community Projects

Girl Scout Woodworker Project

After several months of planning and fitting into other obligations, 10 members from Girl Scout Cadet troop 33331 built tool boxes at the shops of Diablo Woodworker Tom Meyers on May 19. Diablo Woodworkers participated as assistants to the girls.

A preparation team from Diablo Woodworkers had cut the pieces necessary the pieces necessary for assembly at Dante Paulazzo’s shop. That team consisted of Tom Baily (Project Leader), Dante Paulazzo, Tom Meyers, and Bob Barnett.

The Scouts used drills, screwdrivers, hammers and saws to complete the boxes. Parents were in ample supply to provide some tools, photography, and advice for the girls. 

Diablo Woodworkers on the build team: Tom Baily, Tom Meyers, Harold Mantle, David Yee, Victoria Morse, Dave Wittenbrock, Gordon Fry, and Peggy Gipps.

A group of Girl Scouts in the 6th grade (11&12 years old) will be working on the Woodworker Badge activities:

2018 Community Projects

Late-May 2018 Sleepy Hollow Elementary School Maker Faire

Many Diablo Woodworkers showed up to help in constructing bench parts and help Sleepy Hollow Elementary 3rd through 5th graders assemble the benches. The kids enjoyed the event so much that they built the benches and took them apart four times so all the kids could participate. They also had a separate station where the kids could saw wood, file, drive screws with the driver drills and sand. Duke predicts that he will be invited to another Maker Faire next year. If you missed this year's, you still have another chance!

On April 25th, Duke's construction team met at Duke Herrera's shop to cut wood for the 4 benches that was be assembled at the school

Project Leader: Duke Herrero

Participants:

• Dave Wittenbrock
• Jeff Traeger
• Tim Killen
• Joe Abel
• Harold Mantle
• Tom Baily
• Christine Loehrlein
• Bob Ebe

September 2018 - Pleasant Hill Library Maker Faire

In June, Dave Wittenbrock, project leader, is working with the Pleasant Hill Library to get kids 5-13 years old engaged in hands-on activities. Once again, Bill Ridings of Urban Lumber has offered a great discount for redwood for the project. Members assembled at the Pleasant Hill Adult Ed wood shop to assemble kits for the library Maker Faire bird houses. Dave had plenty of volunteers and they where able to make 120 bird houses. Maker dates to build with the kids at the library are set, Sept. 10th & 11th. Dave has plenty of DW members signed up and ready to go for both days.

In September, members and children assembled the birdhouses at the library. Dave had plenty of volunteers and they where able to make 120 bird houses.

Scholarship – Laney College Woodworking Program
The Diablo Woodworkers Club has accumulated funds from members’ tool donations which are then sold, and from the annual Craft Fair. In an effort to encourage young men and women to continue woodworking, we are pleased to announce that we have started a scholarship program at the Woodworking Technology program at Laney College in Oakland. The scholarship is best described in the words of David Lipscomb, who worked with Laney on establishing the scholarship:

• The scholarship will be named "The Diablo Woodworkers Bill Tarleton Scholarship" in honor of the founder of Diablo Woodworkers.
• The primary objective of the Laney Wood Technology program is to help students obtain a career in woodworking.
• Laney College would be responsible for choosing a student for a semester scholarship.  This will (in almost all cases) be a student who is in their first semester and has shown both a financial need, and the determination and aptitude to move to the next level of work.
• Laney College will have the Diablo Woodworker application completed, and make a recommendation for who is to receive a scholarship.
• The proposed amount of the scholarship is $500 per semester for a total of $1,000 (2 semesters).  
• The second scholarship will be offered to the same student if they have demonstrated excellence in woodworking skills and business acumen (e.g. communications, team building, etc.)
• The selected student will make a presentation on their project(s) to the Diablo Woodworkers at one of their regular monthly meetings.  Department Chair and instructors are welcome to attend.

Diablo Woodworkers plan to continue the scholarship in future years for additional students.  We will report progress in the Community Projects section of the newsletter.

June 2018 - Contra Costa County Bicycle Safety

2018 - Miscellaneous Pictures

2017 Community Projects

April 2017 - Pleasant Hill Library Treasure Chest

The Pleasant Hill Library asked our member Dave Wittenbrock if we'd make a treasure chest for them to take books to first and second grade classes to loan out books. They developed a pirate theme and points to allow the students to get books. Dave took this on as a team of one.

The chest is built of ash with leather hinges and rope handles. All are aged to give authenticity to the pirate theme.

June 2017 - Emerson Elementary School Picnic Tables

Shelter, Inc.

2016 Community Projects

November 2016 - Ruth Bancroft Garden Bench

The Ruth Bancroft Garden bench design was more suited to be a milling project. The Garden representative thanked us for our interest so far but don't need our services. This project is now closed. The Ruth Bancroft Garden will be removing a Deodar Cedar tree to make way for a new entrance to the garden. We're working with the garden and architect to firm up timing and design.

February 2016 - Sea Scouts Bookshelves

In November 2015, we got a request from the Sea Scouts (a sub-group of the Boy Scouts) to help modernize their building at the base in Martinez. Gordon Fry is leading this project. This project involved putting bookcases and cases for navigational charts into two triangular-shaped, porthole-windowed closets in the lobby area. A total of 4 shelves, built in pieces, were built with a tall bookcase and shelving in one closet and the drawing bins and small bookcase (shown below) in the other. The drawing bins had to be built in several sections to get them into the closet. 

The team consisted of Duke Herrero, David Greenhill, Ross Dileo, Jimmy Wong, and,Gordon Fry, and not to forget, our ever present photographer, Peggy Gipps. The project was a 15 hour work session, spread over 3 weeks, and delivered on Saturday February 7th. We installed the units at their base, a fun and rewarding project. Thanks to the team of fun and energetic folks. 

November 2016 - Grass Valley Elementary School

Diablo Woodworkers got a request from Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland to help the students make garden boxes as part of their program to teach self-sufficiency. Tim Killen volunteered to lead this project. Several club members gathered on a Wednesday to make the parts for 85 of the boxes. They have now trained the teachers how to make the boxes. 

Group members helped students at Grass Valley Elementary School make garden boxes from kits made by Club members November 1 - 4. The students enjoyed the experience, as did the teachers and club members who helped out. The team members then made up some more kits for sale at the Craft Fair at Pleasant Hill Adult Ed on December 3 (9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.).

December 2016 - PHEC Craft Fair

Diablo Woodworkers finances our Community Projects partly from the Craft Fair held every December at Pleasant Hill Education Center. This partnership also helps strengthen our relationship with the school and allows us use of the school for our meetings. This year, we have open classroom time dedicated for use of Community Projects, the Craft Fair and the raffle Maloof Chair project. We’d love to have help making quality items suitable for sale at the Fair. Gordon Fry has led the project tirelessly for the past 10 years, but is moving on. Ron Kersey has graciously agreed to pick up the reins and continue our tradition.

Adirondack Chairs for Camp Okizu

A camp for kids with cancer has requested more Adirondack Chairs. Tim Killen is leading this project which has a team in place. Construction will take place in March.

This is the second time that the Diablo Woodworkers Club brings some art, in the form of Adirondack chairs, to Camp Okizu in the beautiful Plumas National Forest. The camp supports children with cancer and their families, providing a fun environment where the children and their siblings can enjoy regular camp activities. It offers respite from the illness, treatment and complications that keeps them confined to hospitals and homes. Okizu has been operating for 35 years in a collaborative effort with the pediatric oncology treatment centers in Northern California. It was because of his grandson that Tim Killen, Diablo Woodworker Club member and team leader of the Adirondack chairs project, found out about Okizu.

Tim organized and led a team of dedicated woodworkers: Robert Brockman, Kathleen Corrigan, Pat Dimaggio, Duke Herrero, Dave Howe, Dewayne Ruwe, Wayne Stolte and David Wittenbrock, who gave up their Easter weekend to build these striking chairs at Pat’s shop in the shadow of Mount Diablo. Tim’s grandson, Adam Boegel, who also helped build the chairs, has gone to the camp for ten years and is proud to say that the kids run past the plastic chairs to sit on the Adirondacks. The chairs have been placed on the veranda and the dock facing the woods and the lake, welcoming visitors and campers alike. This year the group made four more chairs and one settee from two stacks of old growth redwood donated by Hank Haugse in Walnut Creek. The wood was weathered and dirty, but the club has ran it through a jointer and thickness planer to clean it up and re-sawed when necessary to make it thinner, then they cut the wood and assembled it. The result: Four chairs and one settee that will witness generations of laughter and joy.

Two DiabloWoodworkers families, the Boegels and the Howes, will be delivering the four chairs and settee made in March, to Camp Okizu. Both families have used the camp in the past. Delivery is set for the weekend of May 21. For more information on the Adirondack chair project, please read the April 2016 Community Projects Report.

For more information about Camp Oziku check their website: http://okizu.org/.

On May 21, 2016, we delivered new old-growth redwood Adirondack chairs to Camp Okizu. With four chairs and one settee, we used two trucks for the 3-hour trip to the camp in the Sierra foothills. Dave Howe (member Diablo Woodworkers, and on the team who built the chairs) and his son James, managed one truck. Tim Killen and Adam Boegel handled the other truck.

Upon delivery we were greeted with several camp employees who helped move the chairs onto the large veranda surrounding the main assembly building. The new chairs were placed next to many of the older Adirondacks we delivered in April 2013. See picture below.

May-July 2016 - Museum of the San Ramon Valley Display:
“Community Quilts and Crafts”

The Museum is looking for wood items from Diablo Woodworkers to display in their upcoming exhibit starting in May. The items should be small(ish) so that they can be safely displayed in cases. They’d like 1-2 progress displays, meaning showing the starting materials, midpoint construction and the final result. If desired, the finished result could be a photograph. They would also like some information about the craftperson – name, city, whether they do woodworking professionally or as a hobby, etc. Any exhibits should be to the museum by May 3 or to Peggy Gipps before April 29 when she will be visiting the museum. Contact Peggy Gipps (PGippsy@gmail.com or 925-683-2112) if you have items to display. So far we have been offered intarsia, turned items, items from the Craft Fair, and carved items.

Diablo Woodworkers is sharing the pictures from the Power Point Display of previous projects. They will run the pictures in the display room continuously. The museum may also print some photographs and display them on walls. We have given them our club brochures and business cards for people to learn more about us. For more information check out their website on www.museumsrv.org.

The Diablo Woodworkers' exhibit in the Museum of the San Ramon Valley at 205 Railroad Avenue in Danville will continue until July 10, a week past the quilt exhibit.

In May, our Community Projects team has been gathering items for the Museum of the San Ramon Valley in Danville. Starting May 23 and continuing until June 10, DWW-made items will be on  display in the waiting room. The items and slide show will be shown in conjunction with the quilt exhibit. Thanks go to our exhibitors Gordon Fry,  Bob Barnett, Stan Caldwell, Peggy Gipps and club friend Don DeRoeck. They provided the items, some of which are for sale. Come by and support the club, or just see what the museum is all about. While you're there,  check out the large storage cabinet on the platform behind the museum. That cabinet was a former Community Project.

June 11, Peggy Gipps gave a talk at the Museum about the Diablo Woodworkers, Pleasant Hill Adult Ed classes, and brought some of the items she's made. Bob Barnett and Stan Caldwell, both presenters of exhibit items, attended also, and helped to answer questions.

The audience was particularly interested in two functions that the club performs: tool sales and urban lumber harvesting. They were pleased to know that it's possible not to have their trees turned into wood chips.

Pleasant Hill Library Boats

As a result of having display cases in the Pleasant Hill Library, Dave Wittenbrock has learned about the activities planned for elementary school students in the evenings. Recently, Diablo Woodworkers gathered to make kits for boats for the kids to assemble and float. Their leader, Patrick Remer, talked about the program to the team and thanked us for their help.The kits have now been delivered to the library.

Team members: Gordon Fry, Dave Wittenbrock, Jeff Traeger, Wayne Shipman, Bob Barnett, Virendra Jain.