Turning it around
JEFFERSON TWP — Jack Brown, 85, has been doing a good turn for cancer patients at Butler Memorial Hospital.
The resident of Concordia Haven Apartment I has been using the building's wood shop to turn out wig stands for cancer patients at the hospital.
The former excavating contractor also makes Christmas ornaments, miniature lighthouses and toys.
It's the continuation of a hobby that Brown began by accident in 1995.
“I was doing excavation work for houses where I met all these builders and contractors,” Brown said.
There was a lot of scrap wood left at the construction sites.
“I had collected all these pieces of wood and started wondering what I would do with them,” he said.
Brown had taken wood shop in high school, where he learned to use a lathe, so he bought his first lathe and began wood turning.
At first, Brown admitted, “I didn't have any idea what I was doing when I started.”
A lot of the scrap wood he collected wound up in the reject bucket he kept by the lathe.
But through trial and error, Brown mastered his craft.“Wood turning is like any other thing: It takes practice,” he said. “I made a lot of mistakes.”He began turning out candle holders that he would give away to his relatives.“But I just kept playing around with it,” Brown said. “I had the lathe in my basement and different ideas on what to make.”He started making Christmas ornaments and spin-top toys, which went to Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh.Sixteen months ago, when he moved into Haven I, he began working in the building's wood shop with its lathe, table saw, band saw and sander.He got the idea to make the wig stands from a virtual wood-turning club based in Louisiana with 120 members from all over the world.“He asked the (Concordia) event coordinator Chantelle Sweeney if she knew anybody at the hospital,” said Stacy Meyer, oncology patient navigator for Butler Health Systems' Cancer Support Services. “She reached out to me to get in touch with Jack Brown.“I was extremely interested,” Meyer said.
The wig stands are made in three parts: a base, a stem and a semicircular top.“They are pretty amazing, honestly,” Meyer said. “They are gorgeous. The bottom of it is like a dish to put pins in.”Meyer has taken four to give to cancer patients and will take as many as Brown can make.Brown said from beginning to end, it takes about two hours to make a wig stand. Maybe it takes a little longer these days.“I'm not as young as I used to be,” he said. “My legs and arms get tired.”Nevertheless, he said, he will keep turning out the wig stands as long as the hospital needs them and “as long as my body holds up.”Most days, Brown spends several hours in the wood shop making wig stands, toys, ornaments, tiny lighthouses and wooden pens, a new project.“I make writing pens for the military,” he said.The pens are made with wooden bodies and the internal parts from kits.Brown sends the finished pens to an Army unit in Kansas that distributes them.He's done 100 pens in two weeks, complete with tags on each pen that lets the recipient know who made the pen and out of what kind of wood.He likes to switch between projects, making wig stands one day, pens the next.
Brown already has an order for 150 Christmas ornaments for this holiday season.He hands out his creations for free because he said, “I had a business at one time. I don't want another one.”Brown belongs to several wood-turning groups, including the Butler Area Wood Turners, Wood Turners Anonymous and the American Association of Wood Turners.“It's a wonderful hobby. You meet all these people when you go to these meetings,” he said. “It's a way to meet people and get ideas.“I've had a lot of fun and helped a lot of people.”
