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Do Good With Wood - 2009 Community Craftsman Award Winner

Grand Prize Award:
Lancaster High School Carpentry Program of Lancaster, OH

Individual Recognition Award:
Ray N. Kendrick of Orlando, FL

Runner-Up Award Recipients:
Auburndale High School in Auburndale, WI
Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School in Fall River, MA

2009 Grand Prize Award Winner: Lancaster High School Carpentry Program

Minwax®, the leading manufacturer of wood finishing and wood care products, has selected the Lancaster High School Carpentry Program of Lancaster, OH, as the grand prize winner in the 2009 Community Craftsman Award Program. Building on past projects in which the students of the carpentry program have enriched their community, the group is being specially recognized this year for building dozens of wooden rocking toys - horses, snails, airplanes and motorcycles—for children at The Lighthouse, a local shelter for victims of domestic abuse.

The Minwax® Community Craftsman Award is a national program that recognizes individuals and groups which promote community improvement through working with wood, and awards them financial grants and products to encourage continued community service. As the 2009 Community Craftsman Award grand prize winner, the Lancaster High School Carpentry Program receives a $5,000 cash grant, a supply of Minwax products and a private wood finishing workshop with renowned do-it-yourself expert and author Bruce Johnson.

The Lancaster High School Carpentry Program continues to build on a long history of projects completed for the community. In addition to the wooden rocking toys, other projects include building cat shelters for local organization Animal Rescue Friends; creating doghouses and building sheds for the Fairfield Humane Society; and participating in a local Habitat for Humanity project house by doing trim carpentry.

"We are quite pleased to recognize the members of the Lancaster High School Carpentry Program for their outstanding community service," notes Janet Krakow, vice president, marketing, Sherwin-Williams Wood Care Products. "The students' tremendous contributions to their community and countless hours volunteered truly embody the spirit and intent of the Minwax® Community Craftsman Award. It also demonstrates how an already gratifying activity—working with wood—can be even more satisfying when done for the good of others."

Greenville Woodworkers Guild Pictured left to right, Janet Krakow, VP, Marketing Sherwin-Williams Wood Care Products joins Andy Phillips, instructor of the Lancaster High School Carpentry Program and wood finishing expert and Minwax® spokesperson Bruce Johnson as they proudly display a plaque honoring the student's community service.

Greenville Woodworkers Guild Janet Krakow, VP, Marketing, Sherwin-Williams Wood Care Products, teacher Andy Phillips and Bruce Johnson—wood finishing expert and Minwax® spokesperson join the carpentry students of Lancaster High School to celebrate their recognition as Community Craftsman Award grand prize winners. The class was presented with a plaque honoring their donations of hand-built wooden toys to children at The Lighthouse shelter, along with a $5,000 check to benefit the school's carpentry program.

Individual Recognition Award
The 2009 Individual Recognition Award—including a $2,000 cash grant and a supply of Minwax products—was awarded to Ray N. Kendrick of Orlando, FL. Kendrick, a retiree who spends long hours in his shop building wooden toys for abused and sick children in Central Florida, began making and donating toys for the holidays 16 years ago, starting with 50 toys the first year. In 2009, working year-round, Kendrick made more than 3,100 wooden toys, which he donated to Ronald McDonald House, The Salvation Army, the Marine Corps' Toys for Tots, and several other local organizations.

Runner-Up Award Recipients
Two organizations were named Community Craftsman Award runners-up for outstanding community service—the woodworking class at Auburndale High School in Auburndale, WI, and Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School in Fall River, MA. Each will receive a generous assortment of Minwax products for use in future projects. The woodworking class at Auburndale High School built a new display cabinet for their school's foyer, constructed custom-made storage cabinets for the athletic director's office, and improved the local elementary school by refinishing the center of the school's performance stage and building new shelving units for the library. Students at Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School constructed a 2,800-square-foot residence for four physically disabled adults, complete with entrance ramps, overhead lift tracking, extra-wide doorways for wheelchair access, and a four-foot-high bathtub.