Gary has a wonderful gift for working with wood and now is sharing his gift in support of Habitat for Humanity Thousand Islands.
Gary’s passion emerged about twenty years ago when Gary decided to take a wood working class at a local college. That was a pivotal point in his life. Gary was hooked and knew that this is something that he wanted to pursue. Gary had undertaken many wood working projects but the project that he has been most interested in is the artful crafting of beautiful wooden cutting boards.
Gary’s boards are made from several exotic woods from as far away as South America. The strips of wood are cut and glued and shaped into squares, tear drops, rounds, ovals and what are called thumb boards. Some have ‘live edges’ where the bark is still attached.
Gary crafts his boards by first designing them, cutting the wood into strips, gluing the strips together, shaping them into the desired patterns, meticulously sanding them by hand and finally oiling them with mineral oil so that food can be prepared on the surface. The finished product is nothing less than a gorgeous bread or cheese cutting board that would proudly grace anyone’s display area in their home.
From his first craft show in 2003 in Port Dover Gary knew that he had something that was in high demand. He could barely keep up with the request for his boards. He said that it wouldn’t be unusual to sell 300 pieces during a show. Soon Gary was travelling from Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver and other destinations across Canada. He said that he had a following of customers that he recognized from show to show who would continue to buy from him. One of the special customers that came to his booth was Joe Clark and his wife Maureen McTeer. Gary was only too pleased to sell them one of his boards. He also sold his boards to various retailers across Canada in such places as Whitehorse and Lunenburg as well as to people from all over the world on various cruise ships.
Gary was doing a booming business and his boards were gaining in notoriety but then it all came to a crashing halt in 2020 when COVID hit. No one was going anywhere to buy much more than groceries and all shows were suspended. Gary’s business suddenly came to an end.
Gary and his wife Trudi have always been supporters of Habitat for Humanity and have shopped and donated at our Thousand Islands ReStore. Gary says that he admired the fact that volunteers build the homes and sometimes work along-side volunteers who will enjoy the home. He was always intrigued by the notion that materials are donated and that in turn provides funding to build a home.
Gary decided to do his part and is donating a great number of his exquisite inventory to help fundraise for our upcoming 15 unit stacked townhouse build in North Grenville. His donations will be part of an upcoming silent auction to take place in November of 2022 at our Habitat for Humanity Thousand Islands ReStore.
Gary and others like him represent the pulse of our organization. Housing is at crisis level in Canada right now and a donation of goods, time or cash is more important than ever before.
Gary knows that his donation is helping 15 families realize a dream of home ownership.
Won’t you consider a donation so that families will be able to move from substandard housing into decent, affordable homes? By doing so, you can make a difference. You can create the solution.