This club was asked by Mary Steven’s Hospice, who are our preferred charity, to give a demonstration of our woodturning skills to the gentlemen day unit service users of the hospice, some more of an interest as everything is normally more aimed towards women. This could turn into a regular event for the club. We have already been asked to cover another demo event in December, which more of the women will be going to. For this event we had four members who volunteered for the event, these were Steve, Ian, Brian and Barrie.
Within the event room, we had a display table that showed some of the member’s work as to what could be done with wood. Prior to starting we had nine patients who were driven in by ambulance to Mary Stevens in addition to a number of the nursing staff.
Ian started the event with an explanation of what woodturning was about and how it all started with bodgers. Once again we had Steve who started by explaining the various items of the lathe and what they are used for and also how to use them. On the lathe he demonstrated turning a snowman and after explaining about the health and safety involved for keeping yourself safe, and giving a talk about the process of turning has he worked through the process. Steve also explained how the trees are prepared and cut so that we can have them to turn. Various pieces of wood blanks were shown and the type of tools that we use.
After Steve finished his snowman, Ian took over on the lathe and showed how to make a Christmas tree with carved areas along the length of the tree. Both Steve and Ian gave a running commentary on what they were doing as they progressed through the projects.
Question were asked during the event by patients and staff a like, who also showed an interest. After this first session was completed, we stopped for a bite to eat put on by Mary Stevens.
Whilst we were having a break the other area was set up by the staff so that the painting side of the event was able to start, when this got underway we had a limited number of people taking part in the painting of the items, and also an additional lady asked if she could take part whilst she was waiting for the ambulance.
At the end of the day, everyone who turned up to view the demonstration took either a snowman or Christmas tree home with them
Thankfully, we had a number of donated items from the club members for the event.
We were thanked by Ruth and the nursing staff for the day’s event, and they look forward to the next one. All four of us would like to thank them for looking after us all day with the food and drinks to keep us going.

Report by Barrie Fisher & edited by Steve Hackett